Customer Reviews

Advertising Censorship (Media and business studies series)

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Professor Soley has some contributions to make on an ongoing issue that continues to be discussed in the public arena, advertising and censorship. He begins with a little background on the matter and goes forward from there. He doesn't really start in ancient times or even early American times with his background discussion, but rather chooses to start in the early 20th century and enter the fray at that point.

He talks about the Newspaper Preservation Act which allowed competing newspapers to sharve physical plant resources so that both might survive. As newer forms of media became widespread, newspapers' existence was threatened. This is espicially true of the advertising dollars television lured away. Newspapers survived, as did magazines and other forms of print. In terms of advertising influence on content, he reports that according to editors who were surveyed "more than 70 percent of the editors reported that advertisers 'tried to kill' stories at their paper."

Gatekeeping is also mentioned. In terms of who gains access to media, it was often the case that businesses who advertised with the news organization were the ones interviewed for news stories. Something positive for consumers is that editors of cosumer magazines were morely likely to turn down requests to please advertisers than their colleagues at other news organizations.

There are some good background studies in this book. In other places some of the conclusions are pretty self-evident, i.e., common sense validates their reality.