Communication and Society Television in Europe

Focusing on the breakdown of the monopoly control of national communication systems across Europe, this critical analysis surveys the contemporary state of television broadcasting on a country-by-country basis. In this companion volume to Telecommunications in Europe, Noam looks at television in a country-by-country study, blending economic analysis, history, and economic journalism. He focuses on the breakdown of monopoly control of national communications systems. What Noam describes in broad historical scope in Western Europe has been revisited more recently and immediately in the dramatic events of Eastern Europe as, for example, the reformist forces in Romania based their operations in the newly liberated national broadcasting studios. Communications policy is closely linked with fundamental traditions concerning democratic control and freedom of speech.