Comment on commissioner Loevinger's “limits of technology in broadcasting”

FCC Commissioner Loevinger's article appeared in the Fall, 1966 issue of the Journal of Broadcasting (Vol. X, No. 4, pp. 285–298)     

Project “listening post”: An experiment in education for broadcasting

For almost two decades, researchers have been following in the footsteps of Paul Lazarsfeld in asking members of the public comparative questions about the mass media. However, fewer studies have inquired as to opinions held toward a particular type of program or feature in one particular medium. Recent research indicates that, despite the growth of television, radio news has “held its own” as a valuable source of information to the American people.     

Symposium: Radio broadcasting in Scandinavia—Part II

Radio stations were organized in Europe during the 1920s as state‐regulated public service institutions. Contrary to the model in the U.S., radio thus was embedded in the cultural and political spheres and accordingly kept outside of the market forces, although some countries allowed limited advertising. Radio's role as a national service faced increasing legitimation problems, and in most Western European countries, local radio was introduced as a divergence measure to balance political and cultural convergence of national radio. Generally, local radio activities were initially an attempt to revitalize a vivid public sphere. This article describes the development in the Scandinavian countries, where local radio developed in different ways with a rather strong commercial component that filled the “commercial deficit”; resulting from public service policies and a rather fragile component of noncommercial community stations. Although the structural development in many ways showed a different pattern than expected and wanted, local radio will have an ever greater role to play in a globalized media and information society.     

Control of political broadcasting in English‐speaking countries

The pages of the Journal of Broadcasting have often carried material relating to the American Bar Association's Canon 35, which prevents broadcasters from carrying the tools of their trade into the courtroom. Although the conflict between lawyer and broadcaster has flared up once again following the recent statements by Mr. Justice Douglas, the question of judges ordering their courtrooms is not nearly of such serious import to the broadcaster as the question of gaining admittance to legislative sessions and hearings.

Many of television's most impressive hours have been spent covering the hearings of various U.S. Senate committees. However, the broadcast media have no such access to hearings in the House of Representatives—even when these hearings may be of vital concern to the nation and the industry. On the local level, the situation is no less spotty, with the current fight to gain access to the Chicago City Council garnering the headlines.

A broadcaster trying to gain admittance for his microphones and cameras into a legislative session is often handicapped by not knowing the pertinent precedents from other parts of the country. The following survey of this subject is designed to assist the broadcaster or other interested parties in interpreting the various laws, regulations and precedents. Mr. Partain is a graduate of Duke University and the Duke University Law School and received his master's degree in Radio‐Television from Northwestern University in 1959.     

“Touching the sentiments of everyone”;: Nationalism and state broadcasting in thirties Mexico

This paper provides a historical perspective on the intersection of media, popular culture, and nationalism through a study of the broadcasting policies and programs of one of Mexico's earliest government radio stations. This study analyzes the musical programs that formed the centerpiece of government radio programming in order to evaluate the racial and class ideologies imbedded in the nationalist discourse of state broadcasters. By viewing these government programs through the lens of a broader literature on nationalism in the Third World and among diasporic communities, it is possible to identify a fundamental tension in Mexico's official nationalism between a search for the roots of an “authentic”; ethnic identity, and a need to position Mexican culture within the constellation of Western “civilization.”; Finally, this paper investigates audience reactions to state broadcasts in order to explore the meaning of early broadcast nationalism for Mexico's radio listeners.     

Entries on broadcasting in sociological abstracts, 1953–1963

Surveyed community leaders perceived: (1) supported points of view do not get enough broadcast coverage, while opposed points of view do, (2) access opportunities would be used and (3) access would improve diversity.     

Statistical analyses in the journal of broadcasting, 1970‐76

McChesney, R. W. (1993). Telecommunications, mass media, and democracy: The battle for the control of U.S. broadcasting, 1928‐1935. New York: Oxford University Press. 393 pages.     

“A certain stigma” of educational radio: Judith Waller and “public service” broadcasting

This paper explores Judith Waller’s radio programming philosophy over her career that began in 1922 at WMAQ Chicago. In the 1940s, representing the interests of her employer NBC, Waller began to use the phrase “public service” as a way to break free of the “stigma” of educational radio. The concept of public service programming shifted during the 1930s and 1940s in the US, redefined and negotiated in response to assumptions about radio listeners, the financial motivations of commercial radio, and Federal Communications Commission rulings. This paper brings renewed attention to the past and present political economy of media in the US, providing a window into the historically complex relationship between commercial and noncommercial media that continues to this day.     

Twelfth survey of colleges and universities offering courses in broadcasting, 1969–70

The Eleventh Survey was published in Volume XIII, No. 1; the Tenth in Vol. X, No. 3; the Ninth in Vol. IX, No. 1; the Eighth in Vol. VIII, No. 1; the Seventh in Vol. VII, No. 1; the Sixth in Vol. VI, No. 1; the Fifth in Vol. IV, No. 4; the Fourth in Vol. III, No. 4; the Third in Vol. II, No. 2; and the Second in Vol. I, No. 1 of the Journal of Broadcasting. Dr. Harold Niven, the compiler, is a vice‐president of the National Association of Broadcasters and Executive Secretary of the Association for Professional Broadcasting Education. He has served on the faculties of several academic institutions. A somewhat more comprehensive report, including lists of faculty members, is available in limited supply from the author.     

Education for broadcasting: 1929–1963

As is implicit in its name, the purpose of the Association for Professional Broadcasting Education is to work to continually improve the quality of education available for college students interested in joining the profession of broadcasting. The Journal of Broadcasting, as an agency of the APBE, has published some six dozen articles dealing with this subject in the eight years of its existence. However, the rapid growth of broadcast education, the normal turnover of teaching personnel, and the more‐than‐one‐generation span of this field of study have combined to make it difficult to see where we have been, and doubly hard to see where our present activities (as educators and broadcasters interested in broadcast education) are leading us. The following article attempts a broad survey of the first thirty‐five years of broadcast education. It is published for the benefit of the students in these curricula, the professors that teach them, the broadcasters who are called upon to test the “end product” and those in each category who recognize that one of the most important criteria for judging whether a body of activities is truly a profession is the quality of the education made available to the would‐be practitioner, and the traditions that lay behind it.     

“Glocal” patterns of communication-information convergences in Internet use: Cross-cultural behavior of international teaching assistants in a culturally alien information environment

There is minimal research on the cross-cultural needs, priorities, and behaviors of international participants immersed in contemporary culturally alien information environments. Through a quantitative analysis of Internet use patterns of international teaching assistants (ITA) studying in graduate school at a representative university in the United States, the authors discover communication-information convergences in ITAs’ use of the Internet as a “glocal” network, connecting the “global” and “local” dimensions in their everyday lives. The paper identifies dual functions of the Internet considered meaningful to the ITAs in the diaspora, namely: (1) to engage in various communication activities with friends and family in their home countries (the “global”), thereby providing psychological comfort and overcoming social isolation; and (2) to conduct information gathering activities that establish coping mechanisms for ITAs in their new homes in the United States (the “local”). The paper presents empirical data highlighting correlations between communication and information intersections in ITAs’ use of the Internet. Findings extend past Internet research and user studies in traditional communication and information research, which only alluded to these communication-information convergence processes, to better understand how international people use the Internet in present-day cross-cultural contexts of interaction.     

The year’s work in international librarianship: 1969

The paper sets out to determine the social origins and professional status of librarians in Ghana with a view to understanding them as a professional group of working individuals. It examines the personal characteristics such as age, sex and marital status of the librarians. Parental influences on the choice of profession, as well as the status of individual librarians in their organizations and institutions are investigated. The results of this study indicate that most librarians in Ghana come from working class homes and that librarians in Ghana are satisfied with their status in their organizations and institutions.     

The contribution of Herbert Hoover to broadcasting∗

For three years the Department of State has brought a group of foreign broadcasters to the United States to study American techniques and station operations. The program has, to some extent, gone unnoticed. It has received no public fanfare and, since few academic institutions had a direct contact with any part of the program, attracted little notice among students or teachers of broadcasting. Since the foreign broadcasters offer such an opportunity for American students to learn something of foreign . broadcasting systems, the Journal has invited the Project Coordinator to describe the program. Dr. J. B. Briscoe is assistant professor of Communication in the School of Public Relations and Communications at Boston University. He is a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Speech, with an Mjl. and PhD. in International Relations from the University of Chicago. From 1949–50 he was a Rotary Foundation Fellow at the University of London and since 1956 has been Project Coordinator for the International Seminars on Radio and Television held under the auspices of Boston University.     

Religious broadcasting: 1920–1965, a bibliography

The following bibliography is the first installment of an extensive bibliography of books, pamphlets, theses, dissertations, documents, addresses, unpublished mimeographed and other miscellaneous materials, and periodical articles on religious broadcasting. The years covered are from the dawn of American broadcasting up to the present. Of particular importance is the first section on “Sources of Bibliographical Information” on this subject.

Because of the length of the entire bibliography, only the sections on sources, theses and dissertations, books and pamphlets, and unpublished and miscellaneous materials will be published in this issue of the Journal. The section on periodical articles will be published in a forthcoming issue. It is also intended to update the entire bibliography from time to time.

The importance of religious broadcasting is well‐recognized by anyone who has ever completed the programming section of an FCC application form, or has ever examined the body of law that has ranged from the Scott and Schuler cases of yesterday to the Maclntyre case of today. Those readers who find this bibliography of interest might also wish to read FCC Commissioner Lee Loevinger's “Broadcasting and Religious Liberty” in the Winter 1964–65 issue of the Journal of Broadcasting.

The major portion of this bibliography was compiled as a part of the author's Ph.D. dissertation, completed in 1965 in the Department of Speech of Michigan State University. Co‐chairmen of the guidance committee were Drs. Kenneth G. Hance of the Speech Department and Walter B. Emery of the Department of TV‐Radio. It has been updated and corrected to July 1965. Dr. Dick is Associate Professor of Speech and General Manager of KSDA at La Sierra College in Riverside, California.     

Limited competition without re‐regulating the media the case of the broadcasting industry in Thailand

Broadcast media is one of the high growth industries in Thailand; its expansion riding along with the present liberalization of the manufacturing and service industries supported by successive governments through the 1980s and ‘90s. This pace of change was quickened considerably by the 1992 up‐rising against the institutionalization of a nonelected prime‐minister, with calls for freedom of speech on radio and TV.

This article illustrates the on‐going liberalization process and asks if market forces have necessarily resulted in less censorship and more diverse and better quality programming. It also questions whether there is fair competition in the Thai broadcasting industry, and whether the subsequent reforms are working in the best interests of the public.     

An annotated bibliography of articles on broadcasting law and regulation in law periodicals, 1920–1955

USING THE MASS MEDIA: COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN SOCIETY. By Steven H. Chaffee and Michael J. Petrick. New York: McGraw‐Hill, 1975. 264 pp. $6.95 (paper).

THE GREAT AMERICAN BLOW‐UP: PUFFERY IN ADVERTISING AND SELLING. By Ivan L. Preston. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1975. 368 pp. $11.95.

TELEVISION AS A SOCIAL FORCE: NEW APPROACHES TO TV CRITICISM. Edited by Richard Adler. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975. 171 pages. $15.00/$3.95.

RADIO BROADCASTING: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SOUND MEDIUM. Edited by Robert L. Hilliard. New York: Hastings House 1974 (2nd ed.). 312 pp. $10.95/$6.95.

COURSE HANDBOOKS of the Practicing Law Institute. Titles as follows. New York: PLI, 1973–75. $20.00 each, with student price available (paper).

COMMUNICATIONS LAW: 1975. (Handbook 67) 835 pp.

CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN CATV: 1974. (Handbook 56) 551 PP.

CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN COPYRIGHT LAW: 1975. (Handbook 64–65, two volumes) 476 and 356 pp.

LEGAL AND BUSINESS PROBLEMS OF THE ADVERTISING INDUSTRY: 1975. (Handbook 63) 345 pp.

LEGAL AND BUSINESS PROBLEMS OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY. (Handbook 37) 606 pp.

LEGAL AND BUSINESS PROBLEMS OF THE RECORD INDUSTRY: 1975. (Handbook 61) 603 pp.

PACKAGING FOR TELEVISION AND MOTION PICTURES. (Handbook 43) 312 pp.     

The continental marketplace: Authority,advertisers, and audiences in Canadian news broadcasting, 1932–1936

The development of radio news broadcasting in Canada, as in the United States, was delayed by bitter conflict between newspaper and radio interests. This paper looks at news broadcasting in Canada between 1932 and 1936, during the era of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), Canada's first public broadcasting body. It focuses mainly on authority, advertisers, and audiences with respect to the news broadcasting policy and practices of the CRBC itself, but it places these issues in the context of the mixed public/ private and Canadian/American environment in which the Commission operated and raises questions about the narrow margins of maneuver available to the public broadcaster then and now.     

Cable's economic impact on over‐the‐air broadcasting

The author argues that cable industry is having increasingly negative impact on broadcast television as its power in both the programing and advertising markets increase. Cable system operaters are having increasing incentives to drop or refuse to add broadcast stations or to relocate them to less desirable channel locations as a means of improving their performance in the markets. The author warns that current trends could be harmful to many broadcast stations, but he is especially pessimistic about the future of independent UHF stations.     

Cox broadcasting corporation: A group‐ownership case study

One of the oldest and largest of the group owners in radio and television is historically traced in this article, taken from the author's dissertation on group ownership in television, written under the direction of past BEA‐President Rod Right‐mire at Ohio University. The author is on the broadcasting faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.