Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy: The Battle for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928-1935 (Paperback)

~ Robert W. McChesney (Author) "Radio broadcasting emerged dramatically between 1920 and 1922 in the United states, capturing the popular imagination in a manner that was rare, if not unprecedented..." (more)
Key Phrases: broadcast reformers, broadcast reform movement, nonprofit broadcasters, Payne Fund, Ventura Free Press, Radio Act (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This highly informative study gives an illuminating account of the formation of the mass media, the forces that determined their character, and the implications for functioning democracy. The questions addressed and the insights offered are also of great contemporary relevance, as telecommunications moves to a new stage, and problems of a very similar nature arise in new forms."--Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"His study succeeds in introducing us to the principled opposition to commercial broadcasting that existed during America's 1930's, and in so doing, makes a worthwhile contribution to the ongoing discourse on how mass media can be made to best serve a democracy."--American Historical Review
"Backed by impeccable scholarship, Robert McChesney's voice deserves to be heard. His book explodes the myth that the radio-TV environment of today was produced by some 'natural evolution' nurtured by the inherently democratic free market. This realization is especially relevant as Congress and the FCC make policy for constructing the Information Superhighway."--The Progressive
"Robert McChesney's contribution to our understanding of media history and reform movements is enormous."--Against the Current
"A valuable scholarly assessment of a critical period of policy decision-making....Important reading--perhaps the best telling of this short but centrally-important period."--Communications Booknotes

Product Description

This work shows in detail the emergence and consolidation of U.S. commercial broadcasting economically, politically, and ideologically. This process was met by organized opposition and a general level of public antipathy that has been almost entirely overlooked by previous scholarship. McChesney highlights the activities and arguments of this early broadcast reform movement of the 1930s. The reformers argued that commercial broadcasting was inimical to the communication requirements of a democratic society and that the only solution was to have a dominant role for nonprofit and noncommercial broadcasting. Although the movement failed, McChesney argues that it provides important lessons not only for communication historians and policymakers, but for those concerned with media and how they are used.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 26, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195093941
• ISBN-13: 978-0195093940
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,094,718 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars History Repeats, February 9, 2008

By	doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

Robert McChesney has become one of our leading media critics and activists, and in this debut book from 1993 he was already adept at exploring why concentrated corporate media is an affront to democracy. Granted, at the time of this book McChesney was not yet wearing his democratic (small "d") politics so prominently on his sleeve, and was more concerned with the historical forces that have shaped the media mess that we're in now. While media reform is a struggling, yet growing, movement today, it was a force to be reckoned with the last time media policy was a source of widespread public concern in this country. That was way back in the 1928-1935 period, when the federal government was still trying to figure out how to regulate the airwaves, resulting in the 1934 creation of the FCC. At the time, it would have still been possible to create a true public broadcasting system in America, with benefits for civil society and social justice, as well as for-profit companies who would be encouraged to use the system wisely. But instead we ended up with the current advertiser-driven lowest-common-denominator system, in which mega-conglomerate corporate profits are the main (and usually the only) concern for federal media and telecommunications policy.

McChesney provides plenty of evidence that this emergence of a corporate media system was not inevitable and was instead the result of government deliberations in which fairly well-organized non-profit activists (especially religious, educational, and labor groups) were unable to resist an onslaught of self-serving rhetoric and influence peddling by the big media companies. Here we can see how history really does repeat itself, and knowledgeable readers will be painfully familiar with the false arguments about democracy and freedom that big media used then and now. The only problem with this book is that while it is intricately and impeccably researched, the straight chronological history and voluminous government documents used by McChesney result in a very repetitive and unexciting read. McChesney's later works are more passionate and readable, notwithstanding their increased polemics. Here the monotonous reading is not entirely rewarding for the interested scholar until an excellent concluding chapter, in which McChesnay lays out how much we can learn from this deceptively dry political history, and finally delivers on the book's weighty title. [~doomsdayer520~]