McChesney stresses we're now "in the midst of a communication and information revolution" that will either turn out glorious, a rare window of opportunity lost, or something in between. Crucial policy decisions taken over the next one or two decades will decide how things turn out with the public very much a player in the process. In the past decade, there's been "an unprecedented increase in popular concern about media policies" that are now "everybody's business."
Communication is "central to democratic theory and practice" with new technologies becoming society's "central nervous system" in ways previously unimaginable. McChesney states the opportunity powerfully: "No previous communication revolution (has had as much) promise (to let) us radically transcend the structural communication limitations for effective self-government and human happiness (in) human history." But only if organized people take on organized money to make it happen, and their challenge is daunting considering the opposition.
Scholars are needed as well, but since the mid-1980s communication has settled for a "second-tier role in US academic life." It's been undistinguished by too little research even though there are scores of dedicated people in the field. McChesney believes there's a "gaping chasm between the role of the media and communication in our society," and it's reached a crisis stage. His solution: engaged scholarship on the issues because what happens in academia affects everyone.
A digital revolution is unfolding that will touch all aspects of our lives - economics, politics, culture, organizations, and interpersonal relationships. Whatever system emerges will shape the future for better or worse. At stake is the prospect of a more democratic communications system and society or whether a huge opportunity will be lost.
Communication scholars and everyone must be engaged. They must recognize that we're at a "critical juncture" that's rare and won't last long. Old institutions and practices are ending, what will replace them is still undetermined, and once something new is established it will be hard to change for decades or generations.
McChesney's research shows that media and communication critical junctures are only possible when at least two of the following three conditions exist:
-- a revolutionary new communication technology that's changing the current system; today it's the digital revolution;
-- media content, especially journalism, discredited as corrupted or illegitimate; that's more true now in the US than ever; and
-- a major political crisis creating social disequilibrium when the existing order no longer works and social reform movements arise to change it; the condition engulfs us, no tangible relief is in prospect, and it remains to be seen if growing public angst will translate into outrage and action.
Critical juncture examples in the last century were the Progressive era and the golden age of muckraking with it, The Great Depression when radio broadcasting emerged, and the popular social movements of the 1960s. Each time, radical media critiques accompanied social and political change. Today, we're in another "profound critical juncture for communication" with two of the above three conditions in place and the third on the horizon.
The digital revolution is transforming communication and media practices, journalism is "at its lowest ebb since the Progressive era," and there's hope the third condition will emerge. Our political economy is "awash in institutionalized corruption, growing inequality," a shaky economy, and a militarized state smashing anything in its way. Our changing communications and media system will have a lot to say about how things play out and the societal changes from it. There's hope for the best because "an extraordinary media reform movement" emerged in recent years that's energized "perhaps millions of Americans....engaged with media policy issues" in ways previously unimaginable.
McChesney challenges communications scholars to seize this opportunity - to "broaden their horizons and engage with the crucial political and social issues of the moment." It's the only way forward, he believes, and must be done in an interdisciplinary way, ideally in a communications department, where scholars use different methodologies and research traditions to interact with each other. The field must be emboldened enough to tackle crucial core issues of our times so it can "arrest and roll back the increasing corporate-commercial penetration of higher education" that's inimical to scholarship and the public welfare.
Up to now, communication has been a backwater on university campuses, but McChesney believes "methodological diversity and interdisciplinary approaches (can be) great strength" enough for study in the field to make this discipline "the most desirable place for an intellectual to be on a college campus." It now lacks prestige and is seen as a "hepped-up form of vocational education" compared to traditional social sciences "sit(ting) atop Mount Olympus pondering the fate of the world."
Most striking for the author is how historically the study of communication developed in response to the last century's critical junctures. It came out of the Progressive Era (the Golden Age of media criticism), was crystallized late in The Great Depression and was rejuvenated during the popular struggles of the 1960s. They included movements for civil, women and consumer rights, environmental justice and ending the Vietnam war. Journalism at the time was also attacked as inadequate, and it spawned a proliferation of "underground" newspapers and journalism reviews. Public broadcasting as well came out of this era (and public radio followed) as an alternative to commercial television, but they both failed to live up to their initial promise and are now co-opted and corrupted by corporate money and influence.
McChesney also cites the importance of Justice Byron White's majority 1969 opinion in Red Lion Broadcasting Co., Inc. v. FCC with implications from it for greater First Amendment freedom expressed through the media. He wrote that "people....retain their interest in free speech by radio and their collective right to have the medium function consistently with the ends and purposes of the First Amendment (which is) to preserve an uninhibited market-place of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail....That right may not constitutionally be abridged either by Congress or by the FCC."
Had politics turned left instead of right in the 1970s (a real possibility at the time), that promise might have been fulfilled. The digital revolution created another opportunity, and it's up to the public to seize it.
I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.
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