Page 25 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

Policy and Industry 9

Student Exercise

Governments often institute policies designed to guarantee what is
called the public interest. A public interest is one that serves the good
of the whole community rather than the good of one particular
group or private interest. The French government chose to serve
such an interest when it decided to limit the market share of American

films in France and to make it possible for French culture industries
to survive and help preserve France ’ s distinct cultural identity.
This decision was based on the recognition that the unregulated

economic market favors those with financial power. By defi nition,
their interests are private rather than public; the purpose of their
activities is to make wealth for themselves, not to do good for the
entire community.
While private economic actors portray themselves as purely
private and not at all dependent on government support or assist-
ance that obligates them to serve the public good or community
interest, the media that distribute radio, television, new media, and

film to us often consist of a mix of public and private mechanisms.
While cable lines are private, they must come to your home over
telephone lines on public land donated for that purpose, and while
radio and television stations are themselves private in most instances,
the broadcast band or what used to be called the airwaves is owned
by the public and supervised by the government, which distributes
it to private business owners.
The limited number of broadcast bands, some would argue, places
an obligation on private owners or users of those bands to be sure
to serve the public good in their programming because not all points
of view will be represented by the limited number of owners of the
airwaves. This argument gave rise to something called the Fairness
Doctrine .
Determine what the Fairness Doctrine was, and write a brief
summary of its meaning and its history.
What purpose was it meant to serve, and why did the US govern-
ment feel that the doctrine was required?

Try to determine if the doctrine actually did influence the content
of programming or did achieve the ends it was designed to serve.