Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of DemocracyThe celebrated media advocate's clarion call for new media to serve the public instead of corporate interestsand what's involved in this high-stakes struggle. With the explosive growth of the Internet and broadband communications, we now have the potential for a truly democratic media system offering a wide variety of independent sources of news, information, and culture, with control over content in the hands of the many rather than a few select media giants. But the country's powerful communications companies have other plans. Assisted by a host of hired political operatives and pro-business policy makers, the big cable, TV, and Internet providers are using their political clout to gain ever greater control over the Internet and other digital communication channels. Instead of a "global information commons," we're facing an electronic media system designed principally to sell to rather than serve the public, dominated by commercial forces armed with aggressive digital marketing, interactive advertising, and personal data collection. Just as Lawrence Lessig translated the mysteries of software and intellectual property for the general reader in Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Jeff Chester gets beneath the surface of media and telecommunications regulation to explain clearly how our new media system functions, what's at stake, and what we can do to fight the corporate media's plans for our "digital destiny"before it's too late. A single companyComcastlargely determines what channels are available on cable TV. Soon TV sets will regularly monitor our viewing habits and relay this personal information to data warehouses around the country. By tracking which Web sites we visit on the Internet, a vast system of interactive advertising enables online marketers to target us with "personalized" ads. |
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DIGITAL DESTINY: New Media and the Future of Democracy
User Review - KirkusA sobering view of today's entrenched corporate media giants as a threat to the concept of an enlightened electorate.As executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a public-interest group ... Read full review
Contents
Featuring Clinton Gore | 16 |
The Federal Conglomeration Commission | 46 |
The Art of the Front | 65 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
accessed Feb accessed February 21 accessed March Adelphia advertising agenda Americans AOL Time Warner AT&T behavior big media bill broadband broadcast cable companies cable industry cable's campaign cessed Channel Comcast commercial commission commissioners communications competition Congress consumers corporate Democracy deregulation digital TV DoubleClick electronic electronic program guides ensure FCC chair FCC's federal Foundation groups industry's interactive interests Internet issues John Rigas journalism lawmakers lobbyists major March 13 marketing media and telecommunications media companies media consolidation media industry media ownership rules media policy media system merger Mike Mills million National networks newspapers nonprofit OpenTV organizations outlets phone companies policymakers political Powell Powell's press release programming public-interest radio Rigas role Senate serve set-top box target Ted Turner Telecom Act Telecommunications Telecommunications Act telephone Television tion TV stations Verizon Viacom viewers Washington Post
Bibliographic information
| Title | Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy |
| Author | Jeff Chester |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | New Press, 2007 |
| Original from | the University of California |
| Digitized | Feb 6, 2008 |
| ISBN | 1565847954, 9781565847958 |
| Length | 282 pages |
| Subjects | › Social Science / Media Studies |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |