Abandoned in the Wasteland

by Minow, Newton N.; Lamay, Craig L.

• ISBN13: 9780809023110
• ISBN10: 0809023113
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-07-01
• Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub

Summary

In 1961, when Newton N. Minow was President Kennedy's chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he astonished the American public with his blunt criticism of television broadcasting as a "vast wasteland." To Mr. Minow today, after decades in communications and public service, and to his colleague Craig L. LaMay, the problem is more urgent than ever, for we all - broadcasters, parents, public officials, and teachers - have abandoned our children to a wasteland of vacuous, often violent, and openly consumerist television programming that represents none of the values we claim to cherish and that threatens our future.
The commercial interests dominating television today argue that the Constitution gives them the right to broadcast whatever they wish. But Minow and LaMay persuasively demonstrate that this is a false application of the First Amendment. They remind us that broadcasters are required by law to serve the public interest, and that the Supreme Court and Congress regard service to children as a broadcaster's obligation under law. They argue that the First Amendment can be used on behalf of children, to help make television a force that will nurture and not harm them. They offer many hardheaded, workable ideas for an effective children's television policy (America is alone among the Western democracies in not yet having one) and for new ways to ensure that our children travel safely on the information superhighway.

Author Biography

Craig L. LaMay is associate director of the Public-Service Television Project.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 3
Strangers in the House	p. 17
Whence the Stranger? The Elusive Public Interest	p. 58
Children, Television, and the First Amendment	p. 105
The Next Generation and the Age of SuperTube	p. 137
Changing the Way We Think	p. 152
Appendix 1: A Bill for Children's Telecommunications	p. 177
Appendix 2: The Wasteland Speeches, 1961 and 1991	p. 185
Notes	p. 209
Index	p. 225
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