Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy (Hardcover)

by Jeff Chester (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In recent years, the Federal Communications Commission has come under fire from advocacy groups and, increasingly, the general public for its regulatory decisions (or, in many cases, lack thereof). Writing in the tradition of critic Robert McChesney, media watchdog Jeff Chester examines the FCC, charting the close network of lobbyists, trade associations and other industry representatives in which it is embedded. Through close analysis of recent FCC moves and decisions on media consolidation and network neutrality, Chester makes a damning and important case for sweeping reform in governmental regulation, culminating in a series of policy recommendations that would adjust the balance of power between media corporations and customers. Unfortunately, Chester is mostly preaching to the converted; the general tone of the book is so stridently (even antagonistically) polemic that it's more likely to turn off uninformed or dissenting readers than persuade them. While offering red meat for those already concerned about issues of personal privacy and media choice in an era of growing corporate media oligarchy, Chester doesn't do much to reach beyond them, limiting the book's appeal both as a book and as a piece of advocacy. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* How is it, the author asks, that every new communications technology, from radio to cable television, is hailed as the one that will make the media more democratic and then is almost immediately subverted (or perhaps perverted) by politics and big business? Chester, a longtime critic of media commercialization, explores how the newest technological breakthroughs, the digital media, could spell further disaster. Do we really want television sets that monitor what we watch? Or an Internet that knows what sites we visit and reports back to advertising companies? Do we want to see newspapers, television stations, and radio stations in the hands of massive corporations that control what we see and what we think? After scaring the bejeebers out of us, Chester concludes with a "policy agenda for the broadband era" in which he puts forward some badly needed reforms, such as strict rules governing the collection of information on the Internet; regulations limiting how many media a single company can own; and a complete overhaul of the FCC, to turn it from a "corporate lapdog" into a genuine communications watchdog. Cautionary tale is too weak a term for this angry call for democracy, fairness, and a little old-fashioned common sense. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: New Press (January 8, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565847954
• ISBN-13: 978-1565847958
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #780,176 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Paul Revere of Media Criticism, February 18, 2007

By	Citizen Joe "Citizen" (Bangor, Me USA) - See all my reviews

There is an irony in writing a review of Jeff Chester's (Center for Digital Democracy) critique of new media and the future of democracy on this site given how successful Amazon has been in using the internet to do the things that Mr Chester so despises. The book contains very detailed discussions about how large telecommunications companies have and are subverting democratic processes in America. The book is both a brief history of political developments in modern communications and a work of art in judiciously critiquing these developments in order to suggest what we as citizens should do about it. Armed with this in hand roll on the revolution!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wake Up Call About Control of the Internet, March 15, 2007

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In this book Mr. Chester warns that the big communications media -- TV Networks, Big Cable Companies, Microsoft, etc. are attempting to find ways to take over, control, and therefore make a lot of money on the Internet. He is absolutely correct. They would love to do just exactly this.

The author is head of an organization, The Center for Digital Democracy, that is attempting to preserve the openness and diversity of the Internet in the broadband era. The book is a Wake-Up call to get people's attention to the problem.

I'm not so sure that I fully agree with his fears. Yes, from a connectivity standpoint he is right, someone, probably a large company will own the wire that comes into your house. But I don't see it likely that they will have much control over the content being delivered. If they could, the politicians would find a way to eliminate the SPAM (I get several a day), phising (I just got one of these today), viruses and porn that is on the net now.

Part of the problem from the big company standpoint is that the web is international in scope, you can't control the web hosts in China or Nigeria. It will be interesting to see how this works out in the future.