Foundations of Communications Policy

Rapid changes in communication technologies are straining the existing system of electronic media regulation. Despite the increasing pace of technological change, the electronic media continue to be regulated under a well-established set of guiding principles. Principles such as the First Amendment, the public interest, the marketplace of ideas, diversity, competition, localism and universal service continue to serve as the primary objectives for policymakers and as the focal points for contemporary policy controversies. This volume focuses on these principles, examining their underlying motivations and assumptions, their central components, their different interpretive approaches and their continued applicability in a rapidly changing electronic media environment. Central to this book's analysis is the need for more thorough and rigorous application of these principles as tools for policy analysis, rather than primarily as rhetorical devices for justifying policy outcomes. Toward this end, the book explicitly links each of these principles with communication policy analysis and illustrates how the dynamics of the policymaking process undermine the analytical utility of the foundation principles.