This work is unique among historical examinations of American communication policy in that it is less about reforming media than about reforming democracy by providing citizens with full access to important public information and thereby restoring public dialogue to its central position as intended by the nation's founders."- American Journalism "Mark Lloyd offers a wide-ranging chronicle of American communication policy from the founding of the republic through the present day. Reviews"Marshaling a wide range of sources, Lloyd's historical analysis of the politics of communication in the United States is one of the best available."- Journal of American History After examining failed alternatives to the strong publicly owned communications model, such as antitrust regulation, the public trustee rules of the Federal Communications Commission, and the underfunded public broadcasting service, Lloyd argues that we must re-create a modern version of the Founder’s communications environment, and offers concrete strategies aimed at empowering citizens. communications environment has become unfairly dominated by corporate interests.ĭrawing on a wealth of historical sources, Lloyd demonstrates that despite the persistent hope that a new technology (from the telegraph to the Internet) will rise to serve the needs of the republic, none has solved the fundamental problems created by corporate domination. In Prologue to a Farce, he argues that citizens’ political capabilities depend on broad public access to media technologies, but that the U.S. Mark Lloyd has crafted a complex and powerful assessment of the relationship between communication and democracy in the United States. About the Book“A popular Government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy or perhaps both.”-James Madison, 1822
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