Media Concentration, Freedom of Expression, and Democracy

Media Concentration: Giving up on Democracy

Meyer for suggestions and advice. Portions of this Article were presented to the Communications Law Section of the AALS in New Orleans (Jan. 2002). A preliminary version is included in, Medienkonzentration und Angebotsvielfalt zwischen Kartell-und Rundfunkrecht (Uwe Blaurock ed. 2002) (conference proceedings) and as an appendix to Comments of the Consumers Union et al., MM Docket Nos. 01-235, 9...

Freedom to Choose and Democracy

Should democracts value the freedom to choose? Do people value facing distinct choices when they make collective decisions? ‘Autonomy’ – the ability to participate in the making of collective decisions – is a paltry notion of freedom. True, democrats must be prepared that their preferences may not be realized as the outcome of the collective choice. Yet democracy is impoverished when many peopl...

Positive Philosophy, Freedom and Democracy

Media Capture in a Democracy: The Role of Wealth Concentration

Since objective news coverage is vital to democracy, captured media can seriously distort collective decisions. The current paper develops a voting model where citizens are uncertain about the welfare e¤ects induced by alternative policy options and derive information about those e¤ects from the mass media. The media might however secretly collude with interest groups in order to in‡uence the p...

Internet freedom and social media effects: democracy and citizen attitudes in Latin America

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to theorize the heightened exposure to information via the internet can lead citizens to be more critical about political conditions in their countries because using social media increases the likelihood of being exposed to dissident information. Further, the authors argue that the degree to which information is restricted, or internet access is limited, a...