![]() American history is punctuated with moments of struggle and reform in which politicized groups saw media as a crucial terrain of contestation. “Media reform,” as I use it, refers to activist attempts to make structural changes to a media system, usually through policy interventions. More specifically, it is a history of often-failed attempts to decommercialize the American media system. 2 In many ways, a history of media is, in fact, a history of media reform. Thus, the contours of our media system have resulted more from contestation than any consensual notion of what media should look like. At key junctures in this media system's development, amid multiple sites of struggle, certain claims won out over others. This approach highlights contingency it reveals that outcomes were neither foreordained nor natural. ![]() How did we as a society determine media's primary role as a democratic force? How did we decide upon media institutions’ obligations to the public? How was the relationship between the state, the polity, and media institutions constructed, and how has this arrangement changed over time? Such inquiries require historical analyses that trace policy discourses and trajectories back to moments of conflict when normative foundations were fought over and assumptions about media's democratic role ossified. Most Americans are taught in school that an independent press is necessary for democratic self-governance, but rarely do we stop to reflect on what this really means. American Media's Normative Foundations Rooted in Conflict My main purpose for foregrounding this “usable history” is to bring a number of lessons and implications drawn from these earlier contestations into focus and show their relevance for the challenges facing media reformers today. In doing so, I draw attention to a largely forgotten history of media reform activism, particularly during the 1940s. Drawing from a historical analysis that I expand on elsewhere, 1 I emphasize that media reform efforts-advanced by both public interest-oriented policymakers from above and grassroots advocates and activists from below-are a mainstay of American media history. The following study aims to reorient our understanding of American media policy history by reinserting this conflict at the heart of the media system's design. During these policy fights over media's normative role in a democratic society, grassroots activists, DC-based regulators, and commercial media industries grappled over competing visions. However, many features of the American media system actually trace back to resolutions borne from repeated confrontations over the design and democratic purpose of communication institutions. To the extent that it is pondered at all, our current media system is often assumed to be part of the natural order of everyday life. To suggest that the “winners” have been the sole authors of this history would be an overstatement, but most historical accounts downplay popular resistance to what would become the dominant commercial media model. All rights reserved.1940s, media activism, media advocacy, media policy, media reformĪmerican media history is often sanitized of its contentious past. Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of MLB Advanced Media, L.P.A subscription is required for Apple TV+.Learn more about how Apple Card applications are evaluated at /kb/HT209218.Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City Branch.Available for qualifying applicants in the United States.Update to the latest version by going to Settings > General > Software Update. To access and use all the features of Apple Card, you must add Apple Card to Wallet on an iPhone or iPad with the latest version of iOS or iPadOS.Apple Vision Pro will be available early next year on and at Apple retail stores in the U.S.This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained. Apple Vision Pro has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission.View full terms and conditions of offer here. Only one Apple Gift Card per eligible Mac or iPad per Qualified Purchaser. Qualified Purchasers receive an Apple Gift Card when they purchase an eligible Mac or iPad at a Qualifying Location.
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