49
forces – the amalgam of advertiser pressure, the coercion of Wall Street expectations, high debt
service on pricey, newly acquired media properties, the wish for high profit margins, and yes,
audience preferences – create very strong constraints and incentives. The long and largely
disappointing history of FCC policies to induce broadcast licensees to program in the broad
public interest and contrary to their narrow economic interests is a testament to the power of
market forces. The sway of such forces continues to be underscored, for example, by sober
accounts of the economic failure at efforts to air quality local television news even in an era of
television abundance.
118
Deregulation and markets do appear to abet some degree of format variety. Market-driven
format variety, and especially the formats brought by minority ownership, are not to be belittled.
Market-driven format variety has enhanced consumer preference (recognizing, of course, that
choice is pre-structured by the conditions of economic competition). And the broadened
representation in the mass media of racial and ethnic minorities as a result of FCC minority
preference policies has had positive consequences for important issues of access, identity, and
visibility. Beyond the cultural politics of representation, these issues have political ramifications
inasmuch as representational invisibility often means political invisibility as well.
119
But,
notwithstanding the augmentation of consumer preference and the modest broadening of
Knopf, 1997); Leonard Downie, Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser, The Truth About the News: American Journalism
in Peril, (New York: Knopf, 2002).
118
Michael Winerip, “Looking for an 11 O’Clock Fix,” New York Times Magazine, January 11, 1998; Phyllis
C. Kaniss, Making Local News, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).
119
The importance of minority owners in this matter of representational or demographic diversity is
noteworthy when compared to the record of cable television. One 1995 study found that new cable
channels made no difference whatsoever in the frequency of representation of racial minorities, women,
and any age group other than young adults on television. Robert Kubey, Mark Shifflet, Niranjala
Weerakkody, and Stephen Ukeiley, “Demographic Diversity on Cable: Have the New Cable Channels
Made Difference in the Representation of Gender, Race, and Age?” 39 Journal of Broadcasting &
Electronic Media 459 (1995).
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