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© 2016

The Communication Crisis in America, And How to Fix It

  • Mark Lloyd
  • Lewis A. Friedland
Book

Table of contents

  1. Front Matter
    Pages i-xxx
    PDF

  2. Preface: New Approaches to Solving the Communications Challenge

    1. Front Matter
      Pages 1-1
      PDF
    2. America’s Critical Community Information Needs
      Lewis A. Friedland
      Pages 3-15
    3. Understanding Our New Communications Economy: Implications for Contemporary Journalism
      Philip M. Napoli
      Pages 17-30
    4. Researching Community Information Needs
      Katherine Ognyanova
      Pages 31-46

  3. Preface: Communication Challenges in a Changing America

    1. Front Matter
      Pages 47-48
      PDF
    2. Understanding a Diverse America’s Critical Information Needs
      Mark Lloyd, Jason Llorenz, Jorge R. Schement
      Pages 49-63
    3. Feminist Perspectives on Critical Information Needs
      Carolyn M. Byerly, Alisa Valentin
      Pages 65-79
    4. Ethnic Media and the Social Incorporation of New Americans
      Matthew D. Matsaganis, Vikki S. Katz
      Pages 81-94
    5. Do Spanish-Language Broadcast Media Serve a Changing America?
      Federico Subervi
      Pages 95-105
    6. The Whole Community Communication Infrastructure: The Case of Los Angeles
      Minhee Son, Sandra Ball-Rokeach
      Pages 107-124

  4. Preface: Government Capture and Market Failure

    1. Front Matter
      Pages 125-126
      PDF
    2. Confronting Market Failure: Past Lessons Toward Public Policy Interventions
      Victor Pickard
      Pages 127-142
    3. Tripartite Regulation in the Public’s Interest: The Overlapping Roles of the DOJ, FCC, and FTC in Consolidation of the Communications Industry
      Allen S. Hammond IV
      Pages 143-163
    4. Same ol’, Same ol’: Consolidation and Local Television News
      Danilo Yanich
      Pages 165-182
    5. Bridging the Content Gap in Low-Income Communities
      James T. Hamilton, Fiona Morgan
      Pages 183-197
    6. The Online Participation Divide
      Eszter Hargittai, Kaitlin Jennrich
      Pages 199-213
    7. Media Deserts: Monitoring the Changing Media Ecosystem
      Michelle Ferrier, Gaurav Sinha, Michael Outrich
      Pages 215-232

  5. Preface: Net Neutrality Is Not Enough

    1. Front Matter
      Pages 233-234
      PDF
    2. The Constitutional Case for Addressing Critical Information Needs
      Mark Lloyd, Michael Park
      Pages 235-247
    3. A Provocation on Behalf of the Excluded
      Ernest J. Wilson III, Sasha Costanza-Chock, Michelle C. Forelle
      Pages 249-266
    4. A Public Trust Unrealized: The Unresolved Constraints on US Public Media
      Willard D. “Wick” Rowland
      Pages 267-284
    5. Addressing the Information Needs of Crisis-Affected Communities: The Interplay of Legacy Media and Social Media in a Rural Disaster
      Dharma Dailey, Kate Starbird
      Pages 285-303
    6. Conclusion: The Fierce Urgency of Now
      Mark Lloyd, Lewis Friedland
      Pages 305-309
  6. Back Matter
    Pages 311-316
    PDF

About this book

Introduction

This book critiques U.S. public policy about communication and offers guidelines to improve public safety and create strong democratic communities. The lack of effective emergency communication, basic information about health care, education, jobs and the economy, and civic life is at a crisis state, creating problems for the whole community, not just a vulnerable few. The Communications Crisis in America is not because of changing markets or new technology, it is the failure of public policy. The authors include economists, sociologists, journalists, lawyers and a diverse group of media and communication scholars, all offering an urgent call to action and difficult, but achievable steps forward.  

Keywords

Communications inequalities Communication ecology Communications industry Social issues Communications policy

Editors and affiliations

  • Mark Lloyd
    • 1
  • Lewis A. Friedland
    • 2
  1. 1.University of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesUSA
  2. 2.University of Wisconsin-MadisonMadisonUSA

About the editors

Mark Lloyd is Professor of Professional Practice of Communication at the University of Southern California Annenberg School, USA. He has been an associate general counsel at the Federal Communications Commission, and headed the communication policy program at the New America Foundation.  An Emmy-award winning broadcast producer with experience in public and commercial radio and television, including NBC and CNN, Lloyd has also managed national advocacy campaigns focused on a wide-range of communication policy issues. 

Lewis A. Friedland is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, USA where he directs the Center for Communication and Democracy. He is affiliated with the Department of Sociology and has published four books, co-edited two, and is author of more than forty research articles and chapters. Friedland played a prominent role in providing a 2012 report to the Federal Communications Commission, involving several of the contributors (including Wilson) on the importance of addressing critical information needs.

Bibliographic information