Departmental Papers (ASC)
Document Type
Book Chapter
Date of this Version
2016
Publication Source
Strategies for Media Reform
Start Page
209
Last Page
222
Abstract
Most Americans learn in school that an independent press is necessary for democratic self-governance, but rarely do we stop to reflect on what this means. How did we as a society determine media’s primary democratic role? How did we decide upon media institutions’ obligations to the public? In short, how was the relationship between the state, the public, and media constructed? And how has this relationship changed over time? Such inquiries require historical analyses, a retracing of policy trajectories, ideas, and discourses to moments before received assumptions about media’s normative role took on an air of inevitability.
This paper draws from archival materials to reflect on past struggles to change the American media system, with the aim to help inform future trajectories for media reform.
Recommended Citation
Pickard, V. (2016). Waves of Struggle: The History and Future of American Media Reform. In Des Freedman, Jonathan A. Obar, Cheryl Martens, and Robert W. McChesney (Eds), Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives (pp. 209-222). Fordham University Press.
Embargo Date
6-19-2017
Included in
Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons
Date Posted: 29 November 2016