Prologue to a farce : communication and democracy in America
Inspired by Madison's observation, Mark Lloyd has crafted a complex and powerful assessment of the relationship between communications and democracy in the United States. In Prologue to a farce, he argues that citizens' political capabilities depend on broad public access to media technologies, but that the U.S. communications environment has become unfairly dominated by corporate interests. Drawing on a wealth of historical sources, Lloyd demonstrates that despite the persistent hope that a new technology (from the telegraph to the Internet) will rise to serve the needs of the republic, none have solved the fundamental problems created by corporate domination. After examining failed alternatives to the strong publicly-owned communications model, such as anti-trust regulation, the public trustee rules of the Federal Communications Commission, and the under-funded public broadcasting service, Lloyd argues that we must recreate a modern version of the Founder's communications environment, and offers concrete strategies aimed at empowering citizens
History
1 online resource
9780252091759, 9781283583398, 9786613895844, 0252091752, 1283583399, 6613895849
1137144206
Print version:
Front cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Communications and Democracy in America
1. The Challenge of American Democracy
2. The Role of Communications in the Democratic Experiment
Part II. A Brief History of U.S. Communications Policy
3. The Break: The Telegraph from Jackson to Hayes (1830-1876)
4. The Telephone and the Trusts (1876-1900)
5. From Roosevelt to Roosevelt: Wireless and Radio (1900-1934)
6. From Truman to Eisenhower: The Birth of Television (1935-1959) 7. Kennedy, Johnson, and Satellites (1960-1968)8. From Nixon to Reagan: Backlash and Cable (1968-1991)
9. The Internet: Communications Policy in the Clinton Era (1992-2000)
10. The End of History
Part III. Reclaiming Our Republic
11. A Few Lessons
12. Reclaiming Our Republic
Notes
Index
back cover
Electronic reproduction, [Place of publication not identified], HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010
English
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