Christopher Ali - Media Localism: The Policies of Place

THE HISTORY OF COMMUNICATION

Robert W. McChesney and John C. Nerone, editors

A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book.

Media Localism

The Policies of Place

CHRISTOPHER ALI

2017 by the Board of Trustees

of the University of Illinois

All rights reserved

1 2 3 4 5 C P 5 4 3 2 1

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ali, Christopher, author.

Title: Media localism : the policies of place / Christopher Ali.

Description: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2017] | Series: The history of communication | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016023024 (print) | LCCN 2016035369 (ebook) | ISBN 9780252040726 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780252082238 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780252099168 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH : Mass media policyUnited States. | Mass media policyUnited Kingdom. | Mass media policyCanada. | Mass mediaLaw and legislationUnited States. | Mass mediaLaw and legislationUnited Kingdom. | Mass mediaLaw and legislationCanada

Classification: LCC P95.8 A445 2017 (print) | LCC P95.8 (ebook) | DDC 302.23dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016023024

To Tuna,

My four-legged companion

in walking, writing, and worrying

Im not going to lie; I waited a long time to write my acknowledgments because I found this process so intimidating. How can I thank each and every person who has contributed to this project and to my development as a scholar? The polite Canadian in me was vibrating with anxiety! I will start, therefore, with the usual caveat: that so many people have helped bring this project to fruition that I cannot possibly thank everyone. I have tried my best though, and I hope that those of you who are mentioned and those who are not know that you have my deepest gratitude, respect, and love.

This book began at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. There I had the honor and privilege of working with some of the greatest minds and greatest people I have ever met. In the incomparable Marwan Kraidy, joined by Monroe Price and Victor Pickard, I not only found mentors, but great colleagues and great friends. Monroe was instrumental in convincing me to come to Annenbergpossibly the best decision I have made in my thirty-two years. Victor read the entire manuscript and provided important feedback, especially on my merit goods thesis. Marwan remains my rock in the academic world, being the person I turn to for all manner of advice and wisdom. While at Annenberg I also had the great fortune of working with Elihu Katza person whose passion for knowledge and life is contagious and from whom I have learned so much. I would also like to thank Dean Michael Delli Carpini, Barbie Zelizer, Joseph Turow, Katherine Sender, and the global community of scholars and policymakers whom I met while I was at Annenberg: Paddy Scannell, Manuel Puppis, Michael Bromley, Des Freedman, Phil Napoli, Ellen Goodman, Jessica Clark, Damian Radcliffe, Tom Glaisyer, Katie Donnelly, Larry Gross, Christian Herzog, Michael Copps, and Todd OBoyle. Commissioner Copps read the entire manuscript right down to the footnotes and provided greatly valued feedback. I cannot thank him enough for his support. I would also like to thank those who I interviewed for this research in Ottawa, Washington, and London; without them, this research would have been much less compelling.

My amazing friends at Annenberg, Nora Draper and Katherine Wong, kept me sane, fed, and inspired. Nora also took the time to read several chapter drafts and was essential in helping me articulate why critical regionalism is so important to media localism. Her friendship and support mean the world to me. Others at Annenberg deserve mention too for their friendship, encouragement, and willingness to entertain my ramblings over beers or coffees: Piotr Szpunar, Omar Al-Ghazzi, Sara Mourad, David Conrad, Rowan Howard-Williams, and Felicity Duncan. Before Annenberg, there was Concordia University and the University of Alberta and my mentors there: Serra Tinic, Leslie Regan Shade, Matt Soar, Brian Gabrial, and Rae Staseson guided me as I took my first steps into the world of graduate education and the life of an academic.

Moving to Charlottesville and starting at the University of Virginia was both intimidating and inspiring, terrifying and enthralling. I do not think I would have survived the first few years of being a professor without the friendship, encouragement, and support of Andre Cavalcante. Many thanks also go to my wonderful colleagues in the Department of Media Studies, starting with the two chairs I have worked with: Siva Vaidhynathan and Hector Amaya. In addition, Joe Arton, Aniko Bodroghkozy, Andre Cavalcante, Shilpa Dave, Jack Hamilton, Aynne Kokas, William Little, Jennifer Petersen, Andrea Press, Nick Rubin, Francesca Tripodi, and Bruce Williams are the greatest colleagues anyone could ask for. Hector, Siva, Aynne, and Andre were immensely kind and brave to read chapters and even whole drafts of the manuscript, and their feedback greatly shaped the final product. Barbara Gibbons, our fearless department administrator, kept me on track, whether it was in filing forms, baking fig cookies, or making sure that I was taking time for myself. Nick Winter in the Department of Politics was my first-year mentor, and helped my book proposal take shape. I would also like to thank my students at the University of Virginia, most notably those who have taken my Media Policy and Law and Political Economy classes and those whom I have had the honor of working with on Movable Type. Major thanks are also owed to Becky Hasselberger, who fearlessly conducted the first full copyedit of Media Localism and lived to tell the tale. I would also like to thank my Charlottesville family for their friendship and support: Andre Cavalcante, Stephen Ninneman, Augusta Reel, Lindsay Slater, Ben Blackman, Eli Carter, Tim Lyons, Mike Hill, Jon Kropko, and Cypress Walker.

While working on my manuscript, I had the privilege of presenting chapters on several occasions, and I am grateful for the feedback I received from the brown bag lunch series of the Department of Engineering and Society at the University of Virginia, the Communication Law and Policy Division at the International Communications Association, and the Communication Law and Policy Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association. My time as a visiting scholar at the Department of Media and Communication Research at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland was invaluable in helping me complete a round of edits, and I am grateful for the departments support and for the friends and colleagues I made that summer. Manuel Puppis, my great friend and research partner, needs special acknowledgment, not only for suggesting I apply for a visiting fellowship at Fribourg, but more important for his friendship and support. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Amit Schejter and Krishna Jayakar for inviting me to speak at the New MediaOld Money workshop at the Embassy of Switzerland in Washington, D.C, and the scholars at the Information Society Project at Yale University, most notably Valerie Belair-Gagnon. Versions of three chapters of this book also appear in the journals Communication Theory (), and I thank the editorial teams at both of these journals for working with me to disseminate my research.