Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2016

The Communication Crisis in America, And How to Fix It

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Addresses the specific communication needs of the poor, racial/ethnic, women, immigrant communities, the disabled and other marginalized communities
  • Discusses a new policy framework for incorporating social issues into the national communication debate
  • Draws together the analysis of critical information needs and the policy and legal challenges in an ecological framework

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (19 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxx
  2. Preface: New Approaches to Solving the Communications Challenge

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. America’s Critical Community Information Needs

      • Lewis A. Friedland
      Pages 3-15
    3. Researching Community Information Needs

      • Katherine Ognyanova
      Pages 31-46
  3. Preface: Communication Challenges in a Changing America

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 47-48
    2. Understanding a Diverse America’s Critical Information Needs

      • Mark Lloyd, Jason Llorenz, Jorge R. Schement
      Pages 49-63
    3. Feminist Perspectives on Critical Information Needs

      • Carolyn M. Byerly, Alisa Valentin
      Pages 65-79
    4. Ethnic Media and the Social Incorporation of New Americans

      • Matthew D. Matsaganis, Vikki S. Katz
      Pages 81-94
  4. Preface: Government Capture and Market Failure

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 125-126
    2. Bridging the Content Gap in Low-Income Communities

      • James T. Hamilton, Fiona Morgan
      Pages 183-197
    3. The Online Participation Divide

      • Eszter Hargittai, Kaitlin Jennrich
      Pages 199-213
    4. Media Deserts: Monitoring the Changing Media Ecosystem

      • Michelle Ferrier, Gaurav Sinha, Michael Outrich
      Pages 215-232
  5. Preface: Net Neutrality Is Not Enough

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 233-234

About this book

with foreword by Michael X. Delli Carpini, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA

This book critiques U.S. public policy about communication and offers guidelines to improve public safety and create strong democratic communities. The lack of effective emergency communication, basic information about health care, education, jobs and the economy, and civic life is at a crisis state, creating problems for the whole community, not just a vulnerable few. The Communications Crisis in America is not because of changing markets or new technology, it is the failure of public policy. The authors include economists, sociologists, journalists, lawyers and a diverse group of media and communication scholars, all offering an urgent call to action and difficult, but achievable steps forward.  

Reviews

“As these powerful essays attest, there is indeed a crisis in the role of our communications systems’ ability to fulfill our crucial information needs, whether it’s about the positions of political candidates or warning about the devastation of hurricanes and tornados. The Communication Crisis in America, And How to Fix It brings together some of the best scholars in this area to analyze journalism’s ongoing role in the American democratic process, and to rethink how legacy media and digital media do and can interact to better inform our citizens. An important, urgent call for correcting how ‘old ways of thinking’ are undermining our media to do so much better in serving the American public.” (Susan J. Douglas, Catherine Neafie Kellogg and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of Michigan, USA)

“This important book reveals the growing information gaps in local communities and offers policy solutions to restore the communication systems on which democracy depend. This is a timely and compelling work by the top thinkers in the field.” (Lance Bennett, Professor of Political Science and Ruddick C. Lawrence Professor of Communication, University of Washington, Seattle, USA)

Editors and Affiliations

  • University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

    Mark Lloyd

  • University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA

    Lewis A. Friedland

About the editors

Mark Lloyd is Professor of Professional Practice of Communication at the University of Southern California Annenberg School, USA. He has been an associate general counsel at the Federal Communications Commission, and headed the communication policy program at the New America Foundation.  An Emmy-award winning broadcast producer with experience in public and commercial radio and television, including NBC and CNN, Lloyd has also managed national advocacy campaigns focused on a wide-range of communication policy issues. 

Lewis A. Friedland is the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, USA where he directs the Center for Communication and Democracy. He is affiliated with the Department of Sociology and has published four books, co-edited two, and is author of more than forty research articles and chapters. Friedland played a prominent role in providing a 2012 report to the Federal Communications Commission, involving several of the contributors (including Wilson) on the importance of addressing critical information needs.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access