ABSTRACT

Media moguls’ mergers in the world of television and motion pictures reflect an assumption that bigger and more integrated media organizations are likely to be more successful. The digital world, however, is a far more complex, ever-changing and confusing place. Burstein and Kline remind us that in the world of privatized and merged media there is still a role for government. Long before multimedia sprang upon the stage, this conundrum was one of the major reasons for establishing the common-carrier concept for transmission of messages in the postal, telegraphic and telephonic sectors. The importance of the common-carrier concept is clear in Richard R. John’s historical analysis. Spreading the News provides an important explanation of the role of the federally supported postal service as an agent of social change, which unified a diverse population of colonists into an integrated and powerful nation-state.