New Television, Old Politics: The Transition to Digital TV in the United States and Britain

by Hernan Galperin

Overview

Digital TV offers many advantages over analog TV, but the transition process is complex and costly. This book explains how the process is unfolding in the U.S. and Britain and explores the changes in the legal framework and the industry structure associated with it. It is a unique study about the technological, political, and social factors shaping the emergence of the Information Society in the U.S. and Europe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521041201
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/06/2007
Series:	Communication, Society and Politics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Hernan Galperin is an Assistant Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California. He holds a B.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Dr Galperin's research and teaching focus on the international governance and impact of new communication and information technologies. His research has been published in article collections and scholarly journals such as the Federal Communications Law Journal, Telecommunications Policy, the Journal of Communication, and Media, Culture, & Society. He is a frequent participant to numerous academic and industry conferences, including the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC), the International Communication Association (ICA), and the American Political Science Association (APSA). Dr Galperin is a former fellow of the Stanhope Centre for Communication Policy Research in London.

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables; Preface and acknowledgements; List of acronyms and abbreviations; Part I. A Political Economy of Digital TV: 1. Introduction; 2. Why digital TV?; Part II. The American Road to Digital TV: 3. The genesis of broadcast regulation in the United States; 4. HDTV comes to America; 5. A new bargain; 6. A long journey; Part III. The British Road to Digital TV: 7. The European context; 8. The birth and evolution of analog TV in the United Kingdom; 9. Being first: the Digital TV race; 10. Murdoch phobia?; 11. Digital TV and the new Labour; Part IV. New Television, Old Politics: 12. One goal, many paths; 13. Explaining national variations in digital TV policies; 14. Conclusion: the regulation of digital communications and the resilience of national regimes; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"New Television, Old Politics is a detailed and illuminating comparative case study of the challenges that technology poses to the traditional techniques and goals of media policy. In examining the tremendous political, technical and industrial capital invested in digital television, Professor Galperin tells a central story of the digital age. It is the story of what happens when the rhetoric of markets and deregulation bump up against the challenges of networked industries and notions of the public interest. By comparing the evolution of digital broadcasting policies in Europe and in the United States, Galperin exposes how institutional constraints and interest group politics influence not only the path of policy, but the course of technological change itself." Ellen P. Goodman, Rutgers University

"The topic that Galperin has identified is extremely important. I know of no other work that takes this issue of the formation of policies concerning digital television and exposes it to the same kind of thorough analysis and his political economy perspective. The differing approaches to this question in Europe and the United States can be illuminating both with respect to television policy and to governance issues generally." Monroe E. Price, Yeshiva University

"Far more households have televisions than telephones, and they are going digital. This book is arriving just as governments are poised again to plan the transition to a digital television regime. Professor Galperin's comparative study will inform debate about the implications of one of the most important developments in the recent history of information and communication technologies." William H. Dutton, University of Oxford

"This is an important contribution to the debate on PSB that will also be profitably studies by those concerned with the wider issue of the cultural impact of the free market." Political Studies Review

From the Publisher