The Decline of Public Access and Neo-Liberal Media Regimes, 2020
In this chapter, I outline some theoretical considerations and basic concepts that guide my resea... more In this chapter, I outline some theoretical considerations and basic concepts that guide my research. One of the major influences on studies of media has been the work of the early Frankfurt School. Max Horkheimer and Theodore Adorno held that mass media and popular culture under the conditions of late capitalism were repressive and only served to support an order of domination. Late capitalism had contained conflict and dissent including popular culture. Forms of mass and popular entertainment like music, radio, and later television were inherently conformist.
The Circle of Rights Expands is the final installment of Arthur P. Monahan's trilogy on the devel... more The Circle of Rights Expands is the final installment of Arthur P. Monahan's trilogy on the development of "modern" political thought. It outlines the development of several core ideas of Western political thought, especially sovereignty and the right of resistance, from the renaissance to Rousseau. Virtually completed before his death, David Braybrooke has provided some light editing,though some sections toward the end of the book seem truncated. As in his earlier volumes, Monahan does not aim to provide a comprehensive account of the political theory of his age but a selective one. He focuses on key themes and theorists of sovereignty, and on these grounds the book is in general successful. Neither is his treatment strictly linear; he treats overlapping continental and British writers separately. Monahan follows theorists like Skinner, arguing that we can't read the past though the lens of the present. Somewhat circumspect about largescale historical processes, Monahan sees the theories and theorists he treats in historical context as developed in relation to social struggles and not as a logical progression of ideas. Nor does Monahan have much sympathy for theories which link the emergence of these "rights" to modernity. The roots of these notions lie in the middle ages. Despite these reservations, he nonetheless sees a gradual expansion of the sphere of individual rights against the state. The main focus of this volume, as with the previous one, is the relation between political sovereignty and the right of resistance. In the late Renaissance and Reformation this is expressed through struggles for religious tolerance, freedom of individual conscience, and the grounds~and right! under which a sovereign can be challenged. These political and religious struggles raise important questions about the scope of sovereign power. Monahan traces an arc running from Bodin~or slightly before him! to Locke and Rousseau in which one of the major problems of political theory is the development of a defensible theory of popular sovereignty. In short, Monahan's thesis is as follows. The modern notion of sovereignty, which rests on a notion of unitary power to legislate and command, was part of a reaction to elements of late medieval and early modern thought that advocated of freedom of consciencẽ at least with regard to religious belief! and intimations that sovereignty required some form~however minimal! of popular consent. This defense of absolute monarchy and its privileges was the source from Bodin onward of the idea that sovereignty is both the will of the ruler and indivisible. This established the problem that others have to encounter. This way of thinking is evidenced even in theorists in the social contract tradition, which stresses conditions of natural freedom. Though Althusius argues that authority is located in the popular sovereignty, the major trend of others, like Grotius and Pufendorf, the alienation of natural freedom is interpreted so that political authority and law-making authority derive from the unified sovereign and not from popular sovereignty based in that pre-existing freedom. Despite a tip of the hat to the Diggers and Levelers, who advocated ideas of universal suffrage and advanced ideas of economic justice, Monahan argues that it is Recensions / Reviews
Bent Flyvbjerg, a Danish Professor of Planning, has written a thought-provoking book. There are n... more Bent Flyvbjerg, a Danish Professor of Planning, has written a thought-provoking book. There are not many social scientists today who would attempt to integrate the disparate insights of Foucault and Aristotle, Habermas and Nietzsche, Bourdieu and Machiavelli, let alone boldly deploy this fashioned synthesis in a critique against a prevailing positivism that still seeks to replicate the nomothetic achievements of the natural sciences. Part One of Flyvbjerg's book (“Why social science has failed as science”) lays out a case against the naturalist project. ...
Public Access Television in the United States has undergone a serious decline. This chapter intro... more Public Access Television in the United States has undergone a serious decline. This chapter introduces the conflict between two ways of explaining the decline of public access: that of technological utopians who believe that technology itself promotes democracy and that of social constructionism and critical theorists who look first to the social shaping of technologies as embedded in relations of power and domination. The first view is important because it is often appealed to by policymakers and municipal leaders. I criticize the technological utopian view for its inherent determinism, its explanatory insufficiency and its political naivety. Technologies alone do not determine the course of social change. I briefly outline the alternative view, and later outline the plan of the book.
The growing influence of neo-conservatism, has spawned a series of new diagonses of the social il... more The growing influence of neo-conservatism, has spawned a series of new diagonses of the social ills of contemporary American culture . The common theme of these criticisms has been the growth of the "me generation," a narcissistically preoccupied society which places its personal interests above those of the social good. The existence of the new narcissism can be confirmed, according to the neo-conservatives, in phenomena such as the rise of awareness and human potential movements, which stress the self as central, in the decline of patriotism and expressions of social solidarity, and in the growing loss of confidence in government and its officials to act in the interests of all in balancing competing social claims . The excess of individualism, manifested politically, leads each individual or interest group (e.g ., Blacks, Women, left-wing groups) to demand from the political system more than the system can accomodate . The intransigence of these demands leads to instabi...
In the years following the establishment of PEG channels, a new political economic regime gained ... more In the years following the establishment of PEG channels, a new political economic regime gained dominance in the US and the West: neoliberalism. This new regime marked a sea change in the philosophies of government leaders, the judiciary, and policy makers regarding the public obligations of media. The philosophies of the free market, deregulation and privatization, came to predominate, although in many ways neoliberalism, while embracing market fundamentalism, did not endorse the traditional views of earlier capitalism. After a discussion of the history and nature of neoliberalism, which emphasizes the role of government in shaping, if not intervening in, free markets, I detail some of the regulatory and political changes that were undertaken in the neoliberal era, focusing on media issues including the organizations influenced by ALEC, which strove to either eliminate cable franchises or move them to the state level, and the 1996 Communications Act, which relaxed ownership rules....
The Decline of Public Access and Neo-Liberal Media Regimes, 2020
In this chapter, I outline some theoretical considerations and basic concepts that guide my resea... more In this chapter, I outline some theoretical considerations and basic concepts that guide my research. One of the major influences on studies of media has been the work of the early Frankfurt School. Max Horkheimer and Theodore Adorno held that mass media and popular culture under the conditions of late capitalism were repressive and only served to support an order of domination. Late capitalism had contained conflict and dissent including popular culture. Forms of mass and popular entertainment like music, radio, and later television were inherently conformist.
The Circle of Rights Expands is the final installment of Arthur P. Monahan's trilogy on the devel... more The Circle of Rights Expands is the final installment of Arthur P. Monahan's trilogy on the development of "modern" political thought. It outlines the development of several core ideas of Western political thought, especially sovereignty and the right of resistance, from the renaissance to Rousseau. Virtually completed before his death, David Braybrooke has provided some light editing,though some sections toward the end of the book seem truncated. As in his earlier volumes, Monahan does not aim to provide a comprehensive account of the political theory of his age but a selective one. He focuses on key themes and theorists of sovereignty, and on these grounds the book is in general successful. Neither is his treatment strictly linear; he treats overlapping continental and British writers separately. Monahan follows theorists like Skinner, arguing that we can't read the past though the lens of the present. Somewhat circumspect about largescale historical processes, Monahan sees the theories and theorists he treats in historical context as developed in relation to social struggles and not as a logical progression of ideas. Nor does Monahan have much sympathy for theories which link the emergence of these "rights" to modernity. The roots of these notions lie in the middle ages. Despite these reservations, he nonetheless sees a gradual expansion of the sphere of individual rights against the state. The main focus of this volume, as with the previous one, is the relation between political sovereignty and the right of resistance. In the late Renaissance and Reformation this is expressed through struggles for religious tolerance, freedom of individual conscience, and the grounds~and right! under which a sovereign can be challenged. These political and religious struggles raise important questions about the scope of sovereign power. Monahan traces an arc running from Bodin~or slightly before him! to Locke and Rousseau in which one of the major problems of political theory is the development of a defensible theory of popular sovereignty. In short, Monahan's thesis is as follows. The modern notion of sovereignty, which rests on a notion of unitary power to legislate and command, was part of a reaction to elements of late medieval and early modern thought that advocated of freedom of consciencẽ at least with regard to religious belief! and intimations that sovereignty required some form~however minimal! of popular consent. This defense of absolute monarchy and its privileges was the source from Bodin onward of the idea that sovereignty is both the will of the ruler and indivisible. This established the problem that others have to encounter. This way of thinking is evidenced even in theorists in the social contract tradition, which stresses conditions of natural freedom. Though Althusius argues that authority is located in the popular sovereignty, the major trend of others, like Grotius and Pufendorf, the alienation of natural freedom is interpreted so that political authority and law-making authority derive from the unified sovereign and not from popular sovereignty based in that pre-existing freedom. Despite a tip of the hat to the Diggers and Levelers, who advocated ideas of universal suffrage and advanced ideas of economic justice, Monahan argues that it is Recensions / Reviews
Bent Flyvbjerg, a Danish Professor of Planning, has written a thought-provoking book. There are n... more Bent Flyvbjerg, a Danish Professor of Planning, has written a thought-provoking book. There are not many social scientists today who would attempt to integrate the disparate insights of Foucault and Aristotle, Habermas and Nietzsche, Bourdieu and Machiavelli, let alone boldly deploy this fashioned synthesis in a critique against a prevailing positivism that still seeks to replicate the nomothetic achievements of the natural sciences. Part One of Flyvbjerg's book (“Why social science has failed as science”) lays out a case against the naturalist project. ...
Public Access Television in the United States has undergone a serious decline. This chapter intro... more Public Access Television in the United States has undergone a serious decline. This chapter introduces the conflict between two ways of explaining the decline of public access: that of technological utopians who believe that technology itself promotes democracy and that of social constructionism and critical theorists who look first to the social shaping of technologies as embedded in relations of power and domination. The first view is important because it is often appealed to by policymakers and municipal leaders. I criticize the technological utopian view for its inherent determinism, its explanatory insufficiency and its political naivety. Technologies alone do not determine the course of social change. I briefly outline the alternative view, and later outline the plan of the book.
The growing influence of neo-conservatism, has spawned a series of new diagonses of the social il... more The growing influence of neo-conservatism, has spawned a series of new diagonses of the social ills of contemporary American culture . The common theme of these criticisms has been the growth of the "me generation," a narcissistically preoccupied society which places its personal interests above those of the social good. The existence of the new narcissism can be confirmed, according to the neo-conservatives, in phenomena such as the rise of awareness and human potential movements, which stress the self as central, in the decline of patriotism and expressions of social solidarity, and in the growing loss of confidence in government and its officials to act in the interests of all in balancing competing social claims . The excess of individualism, manifested politically, leads each individual or interest group (e.g ., Blacks, Women, left-wing groups) to demand from the political system more than the system can accomodate . The intransigence of these demands leads to instabi...
In the years following the establishment of PEG channels, a new political economic regime gained ... more In the years following the establishment of PEG channels, a new political economic regime gained dominance in the US and the West: neoliberalism. This new regime marked a sea change in the philosophies of government leaders, the judiciary, and policy makers regarding the public obligations of media. The philosophies of the free market, deregulation and privatization, came to predominate, although in many ways neoliberalism, while embracing market fundamentalism, did not endorse the traditional views of earlier capitalism. After a discussion of the history and nature of neoliberalism, which emphasizes the role of government in shaping, if not intervening in, free markets, I detail some of the regulatory and political changes that were undertaken in the neoliberal era, focusing on media issues including the organizations influenced by ALEC, which strove to either eliminate cable franchises or move them to the state level, and the 1996 Communications Act, which relaxed ownership rules....
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