To guide the industry in the 21st century, counsel for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and leading attorneys have prepared the only up-to-date, comprehensive broadcast regulatory publication: NAB’s Legal Guide to Broadcast Law and Regulation. Known for years as the "voice" for broadcast law, this publication addresses the full range of FCC regulatory issues facing radio and television broadcasters, as well as intellectual property, First Amendment, cable and satellite, and increasingly important online issues. It gives practicing attorneys, in-house counsel, broadcasters and other communications industry professionals practical "how to" advice on topics ranging literally from "a" (advertising) to "z" (zoning). Now in its 6th edition, NAB’s Legal Guide to Broadcast Law and Regulation is available to keep you current on changes in the law, significant court decisions, FCC rules, agency policies and applied solutions. The National Association of Broadcasters is a nonprofit trade association that advocates on behalf of local radio and television stations and broadcast networks before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and other federal agencies, and the courts.

The authors argue that TV regulation should be based on the same principles used for print media, for which control of editorial content lies in private hands rather than the government.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is but one party in the development of broadcast regulations--it feels pressure from not only the industry and Congress but also the White House, citizen groups and the courts. Four major commission actions are analyzed in terms of those pressures. These actions are: the shift of FM from the 44 mhz range to the 98 mhz range in 1945; the development of an all-channel receiver bill of 1962 as a means of aiding UHF television; the abortive effort in 1963 to adopt the National Association of Broadcasters commercial limits as commission rules; and the establishment in 1970 of policy to aid license-renewal applicants who are faced with challenges by competing applicants--a policy subsequently overturned by the courts.

A state-of-the-art account of what we know and do not know about the effects of digital technology on democracy.

New technology is revolutionizing broadcasting markets. As the cost of bandwidth processing and delivery fall, information-intensive services that once bore little economic relationship to each other are now increasingly related as substitutes or complements. Television, newspapers, telecoms and the internet compete ever more fiercely for audience attention. At the same time, digital encoding makes it possible to charge prices for content that had previously been broadcast for free. This is creating new markets where none existed before. How should public policy respond? Will competition lead to better services, higher quality and more consumer choice - or to a proliferation of low-quality channels? Will it lead to dominance of the market by a few powerful media conglomerates? Using the insights of modern microeconomics, this book provides a state-of-the-art analysis of these and other issues by investigating the power of regulation to shape and control broadcasting markets.

Discussing such controversial issues as 'shock jock' Howard Stern, this book treats broadcast indecency as more than a simple regulatory problem in American law. The author's approach cuts across legal, social, and economic concerns taking the view that media law and regulation cannot be seen within a vacuum that ignores cultural realities. This cutting-edge book treats broadcast indecency as a social phenomenon challenging the policy approach of government regulation. It is an exploration of the political and social processes involved in the government control of mass media content. The author, using F.C.C. documents and other sources, studies the complex issue of broadcast indecency and its impact on the mass media and the public. He also challenges assumptions and attempts to place content issues within an international context and to project the future of regulation while offering practical advice to broadcast managers on how to deal with today's broadcast indecency issues. Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, Ph.D., is a former radio news director. He is currently an associate professor of communication and Graduate Program Chair in the Department of Communication, University of Nebraska at Omaha. He holds a Ph.D. in journalism from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and has been active in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

"An exemplary study of how media regulation works (and, by implication, how it could work better) set within a wider discussion of democratic theory and political values. It will be of interest not only to students and scholars but to people around the world grappling with the same problem: the need to regulate markets, and the difficulty of doing this well." - James Curran, Goldsmiths, University of London In Media Regulation, two leading scholars of the media examine the challenges of regulation in the global mediated sphere. This book explores the way that regulation affects the relations between government, the media and communications market, civil society, citizens and consumers. Drawing on theories of governance and the public sphere, the book critically analyzes issues at the heart of today′s media, from the saturation of advertising to burdens on individuals to control their own media literacy. Peter Lunt and Sonia Livingstone incisively lay bare shifts in governance and the new role of the public sphere which implicate self-regulation, the public interest, the role of civil society and the changing risks and opportunities for citizens and consumers. It is essential reading to understand the forces that are reshaping the media landscape.