America's Battle for Media Democracy

Victor Pickard is an assistant professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. His research explores the history and political economy of media institutions, media activism, and the politics and normative foundations of media policy. Previously he taught media studies at New York University and the University of Virginia and worked on media policy in Washington, DC. He served as a policy fellow for Congresswoman Diane Watson and as a senior research fellow at the media reform organization Free Press and at the public policy think tank the New America Foundation. His work has been published in numerous scholarly journals and anthologies, and, with Robert McChesney, he coedited the book Will the Last Reporter Please Turn Out the Lights. He frequently speaks to the press about media-related issues and his op-eds have appeared in venues like the Guardian, the Seattle Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Huffington Post.

• Introduction: the policy origins and normative foundations of American media; 1. The revolt against radio; 2. A progressive turn at the FCC; 3. The battle of the Blue Book; 4. The origins of the Fairness Doctrine; 5. The 1940s newspaper crisis and the birth of the Hutchins Commission; 6. Should the giants be slain or persuaded to be good?; 7. The postwar settlement for American media; Conclusion: confronting market failure.

'Today's media didn't have to be so bad. Pickard tells a riveting and heretofore largely unknown story of how corporate media had its way with the public interest and trivialized our country's civic dialogue, despite the efforts of reformers and a once-heroic FCC. Bringing the story right up to today's high-stakes battle for an Open Internet, this is 'must-must' reading for anyone interested in putting our democracy back on track.' Hon. Michael J. Copps, FCC Commissioner, 2001–12