Description
Book SynopsisThe history of cable television in America is far older than networks like MTV, ESPN, and HBO, which are so familiar to us today. Tracing the origins of cable TV back to the late 1940s, media scholar John McMurria also locates the roots of many current debates about premium television, cultural elitism, minority programming, content restriction, and corporate ownership.
Trade Review"
Republic on the Wire is an incisive, original work that reveals the enduring stakes for democracy in the history of our media policy." -- Jennifer Holt * author of Empires of Entertainment *
"Grounded in fresh empirical and archival work,
Republic on the Wire shows us the continuities between an understudied niche of television history and new media development and policy." -- Vicki Mayer * author of Below the Line: Producers and Production Studies in the New Television Economy *
"[A] deeply researched and compellingly argued new book [and a] useful contribution to media history research as well as debates about media policy." * Media Industries *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: American Pluralism, Television Policy, and the Method of Equality
1Broadcast Policy, Television Spectrum, and the Pluralist Logics of Inequality
2Contesting (In)Equality at the Margins of Television Reception
3Pay-TV Orders
4Local Origination, Public Access, and the Hierarchical Logics of Civic Culture
5Blue Skies, Black Cultures
Epilogue: Neutrality, Connectivity, or Equality When Media Converge
NotesSelect BibliographyIndex
