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The Creation of the Media
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 11:48 -0400
___ Dave Farber +1 412 726 9889 ...... Forwarded Message ....... From: David Bolduc <dbolduc () scmplaw com> To: "Dave Farber (E-mail)" <dave () farber net> Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 10:43:52 -0500 Subj: The Creation of the Media For IP, if you like. Useful pointer in original. http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000615.html The Creation of the Media I just finished reading "The Creation of the Media," by Paul Starr, a sociology professor here at Princeton. This is an important book and I recommend it highly. Starr traces the history of communications and the media in the U.S., from the 1700s until 1940. The major theme of the book is that the unique features of U.S. media derive from political choices made in the early days of each technology. These choices, once made, can be very difficult to unmake later -- witness the challenges now in reconsidering the use of the radio spectrum. After reading Starr's book, there can be little doubt that the choices we make now will shape the development of the Internet for a very long time. For a concise summary of the book, it's hard to beat the review in Sunday's New York Times, by James Fallows. In his limited space, Fallows leaves out one pattern noted by Starr that carries obvious lessons for us. When U.S. policy was at its best, it refused to give the titans of one technology control over the next technology that came along. For example, the Post Office was not given control of the telegraph; Western Union did not control the telephone; and AT&T was locked out of radio. The lessons for us now, when the masters of old technologies, such as the movies and recorded music, want to control Internet technologies, should be obvious. ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- The Creation of the Media Dave Farber (Jun 15)