Digital Commons Network^™

Newspaper/Television Cross-Ownership And Local News And Public Affairs Programming On Television Stations: An Empirical Analysis, Michael Z. Yan

McGannon Center Working Paper Series

This study analyzes the relationship between local newspaper/television cross-ownership and the presence and quantity of local news and local public affairs programming on broadcast television. The analyses, based on a two-week constructed random sample of television programming in 2003 for 226 randomly selected, plus 27 cross-owned television stations, show that cross-owned stations did not broadcast more local news than non-cross owned stations that also provided local news. In addition, cross-ownership had no significant relationship with either the presence or the quantity of local public affairs programming on commercial television.

Bridging Cultural Policy And Media Policy In The U.S.: Challenges And Opportunities, Philip M. Napoli

McGannon Center Working Paper Series

Cultural policy and media policy have remained largely distinct fields of research, policy-making, and policy advocacy in the United States. As a result, there has been relatively little cross-pollination of research findings, methodological tools, or advocacy resources and expertise. There are, however, significant areas of overlap between these two fields. Unfortunately, these areas of overlap have not been fully explored, nor have the potential benefits for researchers, policy advocates, policy-makers, of identifying, building upon, and strengthening these points of overlap been considered.

This paper provides an analytical overview of the media policy and cultural policy literatures, in an effort to …

Necessary Knowledge For Communications Policy: Information Inequalities And Commercial Data Access And Usage In The Policymaking Process, Philip M. Napoli, Michelle Seaton

McGannon Center Working Paper Series

Communications policymaking increasingly relies upon large-scale databases manufactured and marketed by commercial organizations. Data providers such as BIA Research, Nielsen Media Research, and Arbitron play a vitally important role in aggregating the data that policymakers, policy analysts, and policy advocates rely upon in policy deliberations. In many ways, these data providers supplement the limited data gathering capacity of government bodies such as the FCC and NTIA and thereby help to bring a greater quantity of relevant data to bear on policy issues than would otherwise be possible. Indeed, these data are utilized extensively by stakeholders with an interest in policy …

Intellectual Scaffolding: On Peter Dahlgren's Theorization Of Television And The Public Sphere, Minna Aslama

McGannon Center Working Paper Series

In this working paper, my goal is to revisit Habermasian public sphere theory by first discussing its strengths and weaknesses in the context of today’s (western European) television landscape. I then move on to exploring one reconceptualization of television as a public sphere, that of the Swedish scholar Peter Dahlgren (1995 & 2005). Finally, I elaborate and further develop those key aspects of Dahlgren’s model that I consider particularly relevant for rethinking the public sphere of today.

The Diversity Challenge: Changing Television Markets And Public Service Programming In Finland, 1993-2004, Minna Aslama

McGannon Center Working Paper Series

No abstract provided.