The Quest for Democratic Media

THE QUEST FOR DEMOCRATIC MEDIA
[SOURCE: Center for American Progress]
Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Mark Lloyd discussed his new book -- Prologue to a Farce: Communication and Democracy in America. He was joined by former FCC Commissioner (and former Benton Foundation President) Gloria Tristani. They explored the problem of commercial domination over media outlets and discussed how the current state of telecommunications policy affects civic engagement. "During the Clinton administration when I was on the FCC, commercialism still ruled the world," said Tristani. "I came into the FCC right after the enactment of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which was supposed to promote competition -- which was supposed to benefit consumers -- and I think in the long run has done us a lot of harm [because] it allowed an already consolidated media to be further consolidated." Lloyd said, “What we really need in this country is... a competitive alternative to commercial broadcasting” that would be supported by the public and fully financed. Voicing the main theme of his book, Lloyd discussed our country’s movement away from democratic media. “Our philosophy, our lived practice of public policy looks very different from what we hoped for,” he said. “If we have not become the farce [of which] Madison warned us, we are certainly not the democracy that we hoped for—that we dreamed.”
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/05/prologue.html