MEDIA OWNERSHIP AND DEMOCRACY IN THE DIGITAL INFORMATION AGE combines a detailed review of First Amendment jurisprudence with rigorous economic analysis to demonstrate the continuing need for structural limits on media ownership to promote democratic discourse.

Among the key findings:

· Economic forces in mass media markets result in the undersupply of diverse sources of information, inadequate production of investigative "watch dog" news and the exercise of market power by media owners.

· Increasing commercialism, concentration, consolidation and conglomeration undermine the ability of newspapers, television and the Internet to promote the robust exchange of views on which a vibrant democracy depends.

· Each medium produces a separate product based on a different stream of resources that is used by the public in different ways to meet different needs.

· In spite of the growth of national entertainment outlets, markets for local news and information are highly concentrated by traditional antitrust standards.

· Previous decisions to relax ownership limits on broadcast television, radio stations, prime time programming and cable TV systems resulted in swift increases in concentration and loss of diversity.

Criticizing the proposal by the Federal Communications Commission to virtually eliminate current rules limiting ownership, the book uses a rigorous quantitative approach based on First Amendment policy to propose media merger standards that promote the "widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources" as well as vigorously competitive media markets.

About the Author:

Dr. Mark Cooper, Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America and a Fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society and the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, holds a Ph. D. from Yale University and is a former Yale University and Fulbright Fellow. He is the author of numerous articles in trade and scholarly journals on telecommunications and digital society issues and three books -- The Transformation of Egypt (1982), Equity and Energy (1983) and Cable Mergers and Monopolies (2002).

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Promoting Diversity with First Amendment Principles and Market Structure Analysis

MARK COOPER
Director of Research, Consumer Federation of America
Center for the Internet & Society, Stanford Law School
Associated Fellow, Columbia Institute for Tele-information

Center for Internet & Society Stanford Law School. 2003

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About the Center For Internet & Society:

The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) is a public interest technology law and policy program at Stanford Law School and a part of Law, Science and Technology Program at Stanford Law School. The CIS brings together scholars, academics, legislators, students, programmers, security researchers, and scientists to study the interaction of new technologies and the law and to examine how the synergy between the two can either promote or harm public goods like free speech, privacy, public commons, diversity, and scientific inquiry. The CIS strives as well to improve both technology and law, encouraging decision makers to design both as a means to further democratic values.

CIS provides law students and the general public with educational resources and analyses of policy issues arising at the intersection of law, technology and the public interest. CIS and the Cyberlaw Clinic provide legal representation to clients in matters that raise issues involving civil rights and technology. CIS also sponsors a range of public events including a speakers series, conferences and workshops.

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The Founder and Director of the Center for Internet and Society is Stanford Professor of Law Lawrence Lessig.

Lauren Gelman is CIS' Executive Director.

Anthony Falzone is the Executive Director of CIS' Fair Use Project.

The CIS is ably assisted by Amanda Smith, the Legal Assistant for the Center for Internet and Society and Cyberlaw Clinic.

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