Sound Business

Newspapers, Radio, and the Politics of New Media

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science
Cover of the book Sound Business by Michael Stamm, University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Michael Stamm ISBN: 9780812205664
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc. Publication: May 3, 2011
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press Language: English
Author: Michael Stamm
ISBN: 9780812205664
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication: May 3, 2011
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press
Language: English

American newspapers have faced competition from new media for over ninety years. Today digital media challenge the printed word. In the 1920s, broadcast radio was the threatening upstart. At the time, newspaper publishers of all sizes turned threat into opportunity by establishing their own stations. Many, such as the Chicago Tribune's WGN, are still in operation. By 1940 newspapers owned 30 percent of America's radio stations. This new type of enterprise, the multimedia corporation, troubled those who feared its power to control the flow of news and information. In Sound Business, historian Michael Stamm traces how these corporations and their critics reshaped the ways Americans received the news.

Stamm is attuned to a neglected aspect of U.S. media history: the role newspaper owners played in communications from the dawn of radio to the rise of television. Drawing on a wide array of primary sources, he recounts the controversies surrounding joint newspaper and radio operations. These companies capitalized on synergies between print and broadcast production. As their advertising revenue grew, so did concern over their concentrated influence. Federal policymakers, especially during the New Deal, responded to widespread concerns about the consequences of media consolidation by seeking to limit and even ban cross ownership. The debates between corporations, policymakers, and critics over how to regulate these new kinds of media businesses ultimately structured the channels of information distribution in the United States and determined who would control the institutions undergirding American society and politics.

Sound Business is a timely examination of the connections between media ownership, content, and distribution, one that both expands our understanding of mid-twentieth-century America and offers lessons for the digital age.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

American newspapers have faced competition from new media for over ninety years. Today digital media challenge the printed word. In the 1920s, broadcast radio was the threatening upstart. At the time, newspaper publishers of all sizes turned threat into opportunity by establishing their own stations. Many, such as the Chicago Tribune's WGN, are still in operation. By 1940 newspapers owned 30 percent of America's radio stations. This new type of enterprise, the multimedia corporation, troubled those who feared its power to control the flow of news and information. In Sound Business, historian Michael Stamm traces how these corporations and their critics reshaped the ways Americans received the news.

Stamm is attuned to a neglected aspect of U.S. media history: the role newspaper owners played in communications from the dawn of radio to the rise of television. Drawing on a wide array of primary sources, he recounts the controversies surrounding joint newspaper and radio operations. These companies capitalized on synergies between print and broadcast production. As their advertising revenue grew, so did concern over their concentrated influence. Federal policymakers, especially during the New Deal, responded to widespread concerns about the consequences of media consolidation by seeking to limit and even ban cross ownership. The debates between corporations, policymakers, and critics over how to regulate these new kinds of media businesses ultimately structured the channels of information distribution in the United States and determined who would control the institutions undergirding American society and politics.

Sound Business is a timely examination of the connections between media ownership, content, and distribution, one that both expands our understanding of mid-twentieth-century America and offers lessons for the digital age.

More books from University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.

Cover of the book Unsettling the West by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book Exposes and Excess by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book Owning William Shakespeare by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book Blazing the Neoliberal Trail by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book The Academic Job Search Handbook by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book Toussaint Louverture and the American Civil War by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book Looking Inward by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book "Hamlet" After Q1 by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book The Ragged Road to Abolition by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book American Gandhi by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book Misunderstanding Terrorism by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book Nature and Culture in the Early Modern Atlantic by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book The Decadent Republic of Letters by Michael Stamm
Cover of the book Used Books by Michael Stamm
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy