Media Concentration and Democracy: Why Ownership Matters (Communication, Society and Politics) [Paperback]

C. Edwin Baker (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521687888 | ISBN-13: 978-0521687881 | Publication Date: December 11, 2006 | Edition: 1

Firmly rooting its argument in democratic and economic theory, the book argues that a more democratic distribution of communicative power within the public sphere and a structure that provides safeguards against abuse of media power provide two of three primary arguments for ownership dispersal. It also shows that dispersal is likely to result in more owners who will reasonably pursue socially valuable journalistic or creative objectives rather than a socially dysfunctional focus on the 'bottom line'. The middle chapters answer those agents, including the Federal Communication Commission, who favor 'deregulation' and who argue that existing or foreseeable ownership concentration is not a problem. The final chapter evaluates the constitutionality and desirability of various policy responses to concentration, including strict limits on media mergers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Among the many First Amendment theorists in America's law schools, Ed Baker stands out for combining a comprehensive theory of the media that democracy needs to thrive with a thorough examination of the empirical economic and sociological evidence that makes his case. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to question the deregulatory, hyper-commercialism ideology that has dominated media policy in the United States for the past couple of decades or who wishes to participate in the ongoing debate over media ownership."
Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of America

"Edwin Baker has produced a magisterial study of media concentration (and, now, online audience concentration). It will be of as much interest to people in Europe, Africa, and Asia as in the United States because it addresses a problem in all these continents that has been plausibly presented as no longer existing, and it comes up with practical solutions."
James Curran, University of London

"C. Edwin Baker is arguably the most important scholar on media ownership and the relationship of media, media policy, markets, and democratic practice in the United States today. Media Concentration and Democracy: Why Ownership Matters is his finest book to date and is certain to become a classic text. It also proves indispensable analysis for one of the great policy issues of our times. Anyone who reads this book will have their positions on the issue challenged and strengthened."
Robert W. McChesney, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"C. Edwin Baker is the nationn's most insightful media scholar, and Media Concentraion and Democracy is a feast of important ideas. This is not just the best book on media concentration. This timely book is packed with original and significant discussions of democracy, the First Amendment, media economics, the Internet, and media policy."
Steven Shiffrin, Cornell University

"Ed Baker is one of America's most important voices on mass media policy. In this thoughtful, serious, and comprehensive book, he explains why the structure of media markets is so crucial to preserving democracy and the right ways to meet the challenge of media concentration."
Jack M. Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School

"Baker's book is an excellent analysis of the highly complex world of media ownership policy. The approach interweaves legal and political argumentation in a fashion that is compact and rigorous. The book is a substantial contribution to debates about media ownership and the regulation of markets in general. It would be appropriate for upper level undergraduate courses in media policy and a variety of graduate courses related to law and public policy." - Thomas Shevory, Ithaca College, The Law and Politics Book Review

"In Media Concentration and Democracy, theorist C. Edwin Baker, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, offers a comprehensive, idea-packed examination of media concentration."
Loren Ghiglione, Northwestern University

Book Description

This book provides a normative critique of mass media ownership concentration. It emphasizes a democratic need to distribute communicative power more widely and to prevent abuse of media power. It also shows why ownership dispersal can be expected to improve the quality of media content.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (December 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521687888
• ISBN-13: 978-0521687881
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #956,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Concentrating on Concentration, May 4, 2007

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Media Concentration and Democracy: Why Ownership Matters (Communication, Society and Politics) (Paperback)

This book is not for beginners, but will provide much more intellectual coverage of media ownership issues for any concerned activist influenced by the works of Ben Bagdikian, Robert McChesney, and the like. This book can also be seen as a more technical, but somewhat less illuminating, sequel to Beker's previous manifesto, the more expansive "Media, Markets, and Democracy." In this latest book, Baker advances a quite unique legal/economic analysis while zeroing in on specific matters of media ownership. Baker agrees with the critical media analysts who see trouble for democracy in the recent concentration of media, and here he goes beyond mere criticism into the deeper matters of law and economics that have caused the problem, and the legal and economic tools that could potentially solve the problem. The first chapter of this book is a fascinating economic analysis of the corporate media and its behavior, and why such trends are having measurable impacts on egalitarian democracy. The subsequent chapters debunk claims that media concentration is not really a problem, or a problem that will be easily corrected by free markets or the Internet. (Baker's analysis of the politicized and uncorroborated faith in mythical free markets is especially insightful.) Baker also provides in-depth coverage of the First Amendment issues of media ownership, and finally advances several fairly plausible policy solutions that are based on real legal precedents and feasible readings of the law.

Unfortunately, this book is not as strongly presented as Baker's previous works. Here the writing style is highly padded and repetitive, with excessive previews of upcoming sections and reviews of previous chapters. Another issue is occasional quantitative analyses that appear forced and awkward. Also, Baker builds much of his arguments by debunking other theorists, most notably Benjamin Compaine and to a lesser extent Bruce Owen, in a fashion that will probably lead to a ruinous intellectual arms race. This book will be most useful as a research supplement for those who have been influenced by Baker's established theoretical work on media patterns and the health of American democracy, especially the matters covered in this book's stronger predecessor. [~doomsdayer520~]

5.0 out of 5 stars Media Concentration and Democracy, November 11, 2007

By 

Yuening Jiang "penguining" (MN, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Media Concentration and Democracy: Why Ownership Matters (Communication, Society and Politics) (Paperback)

Great book in excellent condition. Thanks very much.
Baker is a great thinker, not a good writer though.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Your Media May Be Reconstituted, January 16, 2008

By 

Steven Saus (Dayton, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Media Concentration and Democracy: Why Ownership Matters (Communication, Society and Politics) (Paperback)

In the first chapter, in only fifty-three brilliant pages, we have a sweeping encyclopedic look at the issue, how the current empiric framing of the issue misses the point entirely, and a straightforward argument why we should return to a value-driven approach.

Unfortunately, the book does not end after chapter one.

Having already demolished the arguments of "the other side" by showing the complete irrelevance of their underlying values, he feels compelled to answer their every argument point-by-point. As a result, he spends the next one hundred and fifty pages going back over the material from the first fifty, exhaustively dismantling the statements of his opponents.

In this, he is far more gracious than I. From his rebuttals alone - and the number of times that he must explicitly point out that the right wing's arguments completely miss or obfuscate the point - it becomes obvious that those he is arguing with have completely different goals.

I am reminded of the many times I found myself debating creationists. Rather than simply stating that they had different goals (faith, not science), the most vocal creationists routinely employ linguistic tricks, logical-sounding dodges, and semantic logic traps. Their goal was - and still is - not to compare and test ideas, but to capture the public's mind. Debate, after all, is more a measure of verbal strategy than a test of an idea's soundness.

C. Edwin Baker has apparently not learned this, and believes that his opponents are still acting in good faith. Therefore, he must believe that they are misinformed or mistaken, and so he rebuts all their points. Repeatedly. He has many facts and excellent analysis on his side - but it is the sheer weight of both that is the book's downfall.