Media Ownership and Agenda Control: The Hidden Limits of the Information Age

Description

Media Ownership and Agenda Control offers a detailed examination of media ownership amidst the complexities of the information age, from the resurgence of press barons to the new influence wielded by internet giants. Much of the discussion pivots around recent revelations and controversies in the media industry, such as the findings published in 2012 from the Leveson Inquiry, the US Federal Communications Commission s ruling on net neutrality in 2015, Edward Snowden s decision to leak National Security Agency (NSA) documents in 2013 and the legal battles over ancillary copyrights waged in Germany and elsewhere. Justin Schlosberg traces the obscure and often unnoticed ways in which agendas continue to be shaped by a small number of individual and institutional megaphones, despite the rise of grassroots and participatory platforms, and despite ubiquitous displays of adversarial journalism. Above all, it explores the web of connections and interdependence that binds old and new media gatekeepers, and cements them to the surveillance and warfare state. This ultimately foregrounds the book s call for a radical rethink of ownership regulation, situating the movement for progressive media reform alongside wider struggles against the iniquities and injustices of global capitalism. This book s re-evaluation of the nature of media ownership and control in a postdigital world will prove to be an invaluable resource for students of media studies and journalism, as well as all those with an interest in the changing dynamics of media power. " Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements PART I Heard and Not Seen 1 Introduction 2 Behind Closed Doors 3 The Art of the Impossible PART II Dispersal 4 Dismantling the Gates 5 Proliferation 6 Endurance and Resurgence 7 Two-Sided Preferences PART III Transferral 8 Directing the Flow 9 Getting to Know You 10 The Tyranny of Automation 11 Manual Control PART IV Coexistence 12 The Long and the Short of It 13 Big-Headedness 14 The Media-Technology-Military-Industrial Complex PART V Demanding the Impossible 15 Sources of Control 16 The Politics of Measurement 17 Safeguards and Remedies 18 Conclusion References Index