National Narratives: Australia in Asia

Magill magazine was an influential current affairs magazine which was first published in Dublin in October 1977. The magazine was owned by journalist Vincent Browne, who was also its first editor. Having worked in Belfast in the early 1970s Browne saw the conflict in Northern Ireland as one of the main concerns of the news agenda. This article examines Magill's coverage of Northern Ireland which was largely driven by an interest in exploring thinking within the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The magazine's coverage was comprehensive but narrow. Exclusive interviews with republican paramilitaries, who were banned from the broadcast airwaves, were a regular feature as was an interest in hard-line unionist leader, Rev. Ian Paisley. The magazine's journalism in this period has proven to be a valuable historical record of the emergence of the Irish peace process.     

Radio Adaptations of Robin Hood's Legend During the Golden Age of Radio

During radio's reign on the airwaves, classics and legends were sources for radio plays written for a wide audience. Scriptwriters realized radio's cultural importance and culled classics for material that pushed their conception of “high” culture but still satisfied a wide audience. Radio plays were adapted from William Shakespeare's plays, Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, and Robin Hood's legend. This study covers radio adaptations of Robin Hood broadcast between the 1930s and 1970s: Popeye (1939); Buster Brown (1948); Family Theater (1949); the children's theater program Let's Pretend (1954), Escape (1952), Gunsmoke (1955); and Crisis (1975).     

The FCC's war problems division: Partner in a forgotten blacklist

Early in World War II The Federal Communications Commission's War Problems Division, cooperating with other agencies, expressed opinions that contributed to loss of jobs for at least 30 foreign‐language broadcasters accused of enemy sympathies. Those opinions perhaps violated civil liberties. Factors facilitating the rulings were new agencies' unclear jurisdictions, paramount desire to win the war, belief in propaganda's power, and broadcasters' leasing of time to brokers which made it difficult to determine employees' politics. This blacklisting demonstrates the need for clear jurisdictions in government agencies, separation of judicial and accusatory functions in administrative agencies, and care in protecting civil liberties during national emergencies.     

From Coughlin to contemporary talk radio: Fallacies & propaganda in American populist radio

Talk radio has evolved into the town meeting of the 1990s. Talk radio's success comes from a combination of powerful personalities, audience involvement, and propagandistic appeals. Talk radio has become so powerful as to prompt the president of the United States to denounce many of its practitioners. Radio listeners need to understand how public figures use the media to manipulate the airwaves and their messages to influence the masses. This paper critically examines conservative talk radio figures using Father Charles Coughlin, the famous “radio priest” of the Shrine of the Little Flower, as the locus of comparison. The authors analyze the radio discourse of Coughlin, contemporary national figures such as Rush Limbaugh, and a Detroit‐area commentator, Mark Scott. Traditional propaganda analysis facilitates understanding of the rhetorical force of talk radio and enables the public to increase their awareness of and ability to deal with propaganda.     

Out of Eden: The Legion of Decency,the FCC,and Mae West's 1937 Appearance on The Chase & Sanborn Hour

During a 1937 appearance on NBC's top-rated Chase & Sanborn Hour, Hollywood icon Mae West starred in a comedy skit based on the Garden of Eden that drew complaints of indecency from offended listeners. Much of the reaction came from Catholic reformers seeking to expand the Legion of Decency's influence to radio. The sponsor and network apologized, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a letter of reprimand to NBC and its affiliates. This action spurred a backlash among critics, who charged the FCC with censorship. The incident was an important landmark in the prewar debate over government's role in regulating radio.     

Demise of the radio commentator: An irreparable loss to broadcast journalism

Opinion on the airwaves, once the province of a select few exceptionally qualified journalist‐historians, is now the domain of strident talk show hosts and callers. Radio opens its microphones to public cranks, but not to those best equipped to offer a lucid point of view. The commentator—the gifted essayist whose function was to extract meaning and context from the day's news—is simply extinct, a relic of radio's Golden Age. The irony is, never has he or she been more needed. A grand tradition of broadcast journalism has been abandoned. This article looks back at three icons of radio news: H. V. Kaltenborn, Elmer Davis, and Raymond Gram Swing; the standards they set. . . and a forgotten legacy.     

1. CBQ REVIEW ESSAY: Cyborg Discourse: Technology's Transformation of Communication

Ralph Lee Smith's The Wired Nation: The Electronic Communications Highway (New York: Harper Colophone Books, 1972---$1.95, paper)

Jerrold Oppenheim's Soapbox Television: Introduction to Model Code of Regulations Cable Television-Broad, and Communications (Chicago: ACLU, South Clark, First Revision of November 1971-- 2.00, paper)

Robert K. Yin, Cable on the Public's Mind

Rolla Edward Park, Computer Code for a Cable Television System Financial Model

Rolla Edward Park, The exclusivity Provisions of the Federal Communications Commission's Cable Television Regulations

S.M. Genensky, et. al. Advances in Closed Circuit TV Systems for the Partially Sighted

Broadband Communications Report (Broadband Information Services Inc. 274 Madison Ave., New York 10016)

The Videocassette &; CATV Newsletter (Martin Roberts &; Associates, Inc., Box 5128N, Beverly Hills, Calif. 90210)     

Boys to Men: Age,Identity, and the Legitimation of Amateur Wireless in the United States, 1909–1927

Although amateur radio remained popular for 100 years, it faced a crisis of legitimacy during the 1910s. The damaging behaviors of some operators threatened amateurs with banishment from the airwaves. Through an analysis of archival material from various sources, this paper demonstrates that in order to distance themselves from the actions of malevolent pranksters, responsible wireless operators tapped into contemporary cultural debates about maturity and the emergence of adolescence. As a result, amateur operators legitimated themselves in the eyes of the public while carving out a distinct space for youth hobbyists.     

Promoting Diversity and Pluralism in Contemporary Communication Policies in the United States and the United Kingdom

Recent revisions of media regulation and legislation have emphasized diversity and pluralism as key objectives. Both the Federal Communication Commission's rewriting of broadcasting ownership rules in 2003 and the United Kingdom government's 2003 Communications Act insist that the public interest is best met through providing a dynamic, market-led approach to communications regulation. This article highlights definitions of diversity and pluralism that are increasingly ubiquitous in legislative and regulatory instruments that seek to "modernize" media systems in our present "communications cornucopia." This approach involves conceptualizing media diversity and media pluralism as twin outcomes of strategies designed to maximize consumer choice and market competition. The article argues that we need to challenge the assumption that meaningful forms of diversity can be brought forth only through market structures and questions the validity of quantitative assessments of media sectors that equate choice and competition with diversity. The article suggests that we need to win back a notion of diversity that is based on citizens' engagement with and interrogation of the world rather than the idea that diversity can be measured simply through the number of organizations and channels in the contemporary media environment.     

Revocation,renewal of license,and fines and forfeiture cases before the federal communications commission

The lead article in this issue of the Journal mentions the various punitive powers of the Federal Communications Commission. These powers, are often misunderstood or misjudged by station licensees who have violated either the Communications Act of 1934 or the rules and regulations issued by the FCC persuant to that act. Until relatively recently, the only weapon available to the FCC itself, in broadcast matters, was the power to revoke the offending station's license. Except in the most flagrant cases, this “big stick’ was rarely used, and thus lost much credibility as a deterrent. Although violators of Federal law have always been liable for prosecution, the highly technical nature of many violations, the lack of a spectrum of “punishments” available to the FCC, and the ready access to lengthy court proceedings all combined to severely hamper the Commission in its efforts to apply sanctions to the few “bad apples” who, in the FCCs opinion, deserved them. This situation was radically changed in 1960, when Congress gave the FCC the power to issue short‐term licenses and impose fines as well as continue to utilize the suasion of its power to revoke licenses for cause.

The following lists of revocation, denial of license renewal, and fines and forfeiture proceedings before the FCC give a good picture of how the FCC has used its powers in the four years since the Communications Act was amended along these lines. Mr. Earl R. Stanley, a partner in the Washington law firm of Dow, Lohnes and Albertson, originally prepared these lists as appendices to a September 1964 speech before the Nebraska Broadcasters Association.     

The good,the bad,and the ugly: Financial markets and the demise of Canada's Southam newspapers

Abstract

The impact of financial markets on media management practices is apparent in Canada, where public trading in newspaper company shares has contributed significantly to concentrated press ownership. Fluctuations in newspaper share values have often shaped firm strategies as a result. This paper presents the Southam newspaper chain as a case study of the impact of financial markets on newspaper management practices. Historical analysis is used to show how Canada's oldest and largest newspaper chain, which was known for its commitment to quality journalism and for allowing its local publishers editorial independence, made a fateful decision when it went “public”; with a share issue in 1945. The increasingly widespread ownership of its stock led to Southam's gradual takeover in 1996 by Hollinger Inc., which cut costs and reduced staff chain‐wide. Sale of the Southam newspapers in 2000 to CanWest Global Communications has seen editorial control centralized at company headquarters and partisan support shown for the ruling federal Liberal party, contrary to Southam's founding principles. As a result, the Canadian Senate began hearings into the media in 2003, bringing the possibility of government regulation to reverse the impact of financial markets on the management of media firms there.     

Telecommunications

Thomas R. Brooks' Communications Workers of America: The Story of a Union (New York: Mason/Charter, 1977—$12.95)

Lorne A. Parker and Betsy Riccomini, comps. A Report on University Applications of Satellite/Cable Technology: First Annual International Communications Conference (153 pp., paper, no date)

Lorne A. Parker and Betsy Riccomini, comps. The Status of the Telephone in Education: Second Annual International Communications Conference (220 pp., paper, no date)

Lorne A. Parker and Betsy Riccomini, comps. The Telephone in Education: Book II: Third Annual International Communications Conference (201 pp., paper, no date)

Mavis Monson, et al., eds. A Design for Interactive Audio (132 pp., paper, 1977)

John A. Bunyan and James C. Crimmons' Television and Management: The Manager's Guide to Video (White Plains, N.Y.: Knowledge Industry Publications, 1977—$24.50)     

Some Final Note

Television Station Employment Practices: The Status of Minorities and Women (Office of Communications, United Church of Christ, 289 Park Ave. South, New York 10010, November 1972 -- free on request to poverty organizations and citizen-action groups, $10.00 to others to help recover costs)

Guide to Understanding Broadcast License Applications and other FCC Forms

Perry's Broadcasting and the Law (Box 8357 Knoxville, Tennessee 37916 -- $48 per year/published twice a month)

Perry's Digest of Communication Law

Wilbur Schramm and Lyle Nelson's The Financing of Public Television (Communications and Society, 770 Welch Road, Palo Alto, Cal. 94304, October 1972 -- $2.00, or $1.50 each for six or more, paper)

The Michigan Speech Association's Radio, Television, and Film in the Secondary School (Skokie, Ill.: National Textbook Co., 1972 -- $2.40, paper)     

Media Regulation and Law

Harold L. Nelson and Dwight L. Teeter, Jr.'s Law of Mass Communications: Freedom and Control of Print and Broadcast Media (Mineola, N.Y.: Foundation Press, 1978—$16.00)

David Gordon's Problems in Law of Mass Communications: Programmed Instruction (same publisher–inquire for copies), which in a few cases also updates the basic text (as in the Supreme Court case on crossownership of media)

John Foley, Robert C. Lobdell, and Robert Trounson, eds. The Southern California Conference on The Media and the Law (Los Angeles: Times Mirror Press, 1978—price not given, paper)     

Telecommunications (other than broadcasting)

Judith M. and Douglas P. Brush's Private Television Communications: An Awakening Giant: An Industry Report and Planning Guide (Herman Publishing, 45 Newberry St., Boston, Mass. 02116— $40.00, paper)

Kenneth C. Laudon's Communications Technology and Democratic Participation (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1977—$15.00)

John Sunier's The Handbook of Telephones and Accessories (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: TAB Books, 1978—$14.95/9.95)

James D. Scott's Bringing Premium Entertainment into the Home via Pay-Cable TV (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Graduate School of Business Administration (Division of Research), University of Michigan, 1977— $3.50, paper)

Robert E. Jacobson's Municipal Control of Cable Communications (New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1977—$16.95)     

Uneasy Listening: Pacifica Radio's Civil War. Cambridge,U.K.: Black Apollo Press, 2006

This historical account examines the Federal Communications Commission's investigation and hearings into newspaper ownership of radio stations. The hearing, which lasted from 1941 to 1944, were the opening round in what has proved to be a long‐term concern of the commission—cross‐media ownership in local markets. In the years since the newspaper hearings, the FCC has held to its decision to police cross‐media ownership case‐by‐case with the goal to avoid local monopolies. FCC ridings blocking cross ownership have been argued repeatedly, but the commission's authority has been upheld. Thus the hearings had an important result: The FCC reasserted its responsibility to ensure ownership diversification of broadcast stations. The hearings set the stage for future action by the FCC to police cross ownership, action that has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.     

Telecommunications

Lawrence W. Lichty and Malachi C. Topping (eds.) American Broadcasting: A Sourcebook on the History of Radio and Television (New York: Hastings House, 1975—$26.50/15.00)

Raymond Flower and Michael Wynn Jones' Lloyd's of London: An Illustrated History (New York: Hastings House, 1974—$15.00)

S. Young Lee and Ronald J. Pedone's Status Report on Public Broadcasting 1973 (Washington: Corporation for Public Broadcasting and HEW, 1974—no price given)

Donald J. Bogue's The Radio Audience for Classical Music: The Case of Station WEFM, Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago Community and Family Study Center Communication Laboratory, 1973—$2.00, paper)

A Report by the Norman [Oklahoma] Cable Communications Commission (write to Mr. Martin Bernert, Norman Cable Communications Commission, 111 North Peters, P.O. Box 370, Norman, Okla. 73069—$20.00, paper)     

Epilogue to the Quiz Show Scandal: A Case Study of the FCC and Corporate Favoritism

In 1959, the Federal Communications Commission was severely criticized for its failures regarding the television quiz scandals. Anxious to make amends, the Commission had the opportunity to redress its mistakes when it reviewed license applications for stations operated by three key figures in the scandal: Jack Barry, Daniel Enright, and NBC. Unfortunately, the Commission inconsistently applied its character requirements for licensees by ignoring NBC's questionable actions in the quiz show scandal but punishing Barry and Enright for theirs. This essay explicates the FCC's response to the quiz show deception through the relicensing cases of Melody MusidWGMA and NBWRCV.     

Broadcasting and Cable

Sydney W. Head's Broadcasts in America: A Survey of Television and Radio (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1976--- price not given but about $16.00)

Barcus, two studies of children's television program content

Stuart Hood's The Professions: Radio and Television (North Pomfret, Vt.: David and Charles, 1975---$9.95)

Televisions (Washington Community Video Center, P.O. Box 21068, Washington D.C. 20009---bimonthly/510 for individuals, $15 for institutions)

Cable Television: Promise versus Regulatory Performance (Washington: House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Submommittee on Communications, Committee Print, January 1976---free on request to the Committee Clerk)

“Developing Legal Issues in Cable Communications,” The Catholic University of America Law Review 24:675-898 (Summer 1975)     

Books of the Month: Kids!

Gerald S. Lesser's Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street (New York: Random House, 1974 -- $10.00)

Richard M. Polsky's Getting to Sesame Street: Origins of the Children's Television Workshop (Palo Alto, Calif.: Aspen Program on Communications and Society, 770 welsh Rd., 1974 --$3.95...also New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1974 -- $11.00)