Fcc Regulation Of Political Broadcasting

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is but one party in the development of broadcast regulations--it feels pressure from not only the industry and Congress but also the White House, citizen groups and the courts. Four major commission actions are analyzed in terms of those pressures. These actions are: the shift of FM from the 44 mhz range to the 98 mhz range in 1945; the development of an all-channel receiver bill of 1962 as a means of aiding UHF television; the abortive effort in 1963 to adopt the National Association of Broadcasters commercial limits as commission rules; and the establishment in 1970 of policy to aid license-renewal applicants who are faced with challenges by competing applicants--a policy subsequently overturned by the courts.

Critiques the two party political system from a critical legal studies perspective by examining FCC law.

In this interdisciplinary study of the laws and policies associated with commercial radio and television, Thomas Streeter reverses the usual take on broadcasting and markets by showing that government regulation creates rather than intervenes in the market. Analyzing the processes by which commercial media are organized, Streeter asks how it is possible to take the practice of broadcasting—the reproduction of disembodied sounds and pictures for dissemination to vast unseen audiences—and constitute it as something that can be bought, owned, and sold. With an impressive command of broadcast history, as well as critical and cultural studies of the media, Streeter shows that liberal marketplace principles—ideas of individuality, property, public interest, and markets—have come into contradiction with themselves. Commercial broadcasting is dependent on government privileges, and Streeter provides a searching critique of the political choices of corporate liberalism that shape our landscape of cultural property and electronic intangibles.

Broadcast Indecency (1997) treats broadcast indecency as more than a simple regulatory problem in American law. The author’s approach cuts across legal, social and economic concerns, taking the view that media law and regulation cannot be seen within a vacuum that ignores cultural realities. It treats broadcast as a phenomenon challenging the policy approach of government regulation, and is an exploration of the political and social processes involved in the government control of mass media content.

Considers H.R. 5389, H.R. 7122, H.R. 7985, and related bills, to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to extend and expand broadcasting equal time provisions. Focuses on consequences of FCC ruling in the Lar Daly Case.

Discussing such controversial issues as 'shock jock' Howard Stern, this book treats broadcast indecency as more than a simple regulatory problem in American law. The author's approach cuts across legal, social, and economic concerns taking the view that media law and regulation cannot be seen within a vacuum that ignores cultural realities. This cutting-edge book treats broadcast indecency as a social phenomenon challenging the policy approach of government regulation. It is an exploration of the political and social processes involved in the government control of mass media content. The author, using F.C.C. documents and other sources, studies the complex issue of broadcast indecency and its impact on the mass media and the public. He also challenges assumptions and attempts to place content issues within an international context and to project the future of regulation while offering practical advice to broadcast managers on how to deal with today's broadcast indecency issues. Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, Ph.D., is a former radio news director. He is currently an associate professor of communication and Graduate Program Chair in the Department of Communication, University of Nebraska at Omaha. He holds a Ph.D. in journalism from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and has been active in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.