Congressional hearing on how radio spectrum can be managed to achieve sound communications policy. This is the first hearing before the Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, & Consumer Protection with the head of the NTIA & the Chairman of the FCC. The Clinton Administration proposed additional spectrum auctions in its fiscal year 1998 budget. The FCC scheduled a number of auctions for later in 1997, one of them ordered by the agreement on the last budget. The FCC & the NTIA still have a role in managing the spectrum in the public interest, which must mean more than simply financial profit for the government.

The passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 inaugurated a new and highly volatile era in telecommunications. The first major overhaul of U.S. communications law since 1934--when no one had a television set, a cordless phone, or a computer--the Act was spurred into being by broad shifts in technology use. Equally important, this book shows, the new law reflects important changes in our notions of the purpose of communications regulation and how it should be deployed. Focusing on the evolution of the concept of the public interest, Aufderheide examines how and why the legislation was developed, provides a thematic analysis of the Act itself, and charts its intended and unintended effects in business and policy. An abridged version of the Act is included, as are the Supreme Court decision that struck down one of its clauses, the Communications Decency Act, and a variety of pertinent speeches and policy arguments. Readers are also guided to a range of organizations and websites that offer legal updates and policy information. Finalist, McGannon Center Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communication Policy Research

Cyberspace and cybertechnology have impacted on every aspect of our lives. Western society, culture, politics and economics are now all intricately bound with cyberspace. Living With Cyberspace brings together the leading cyber-theorists of North America, Britain and Australia to map the present and the future of cyberspace.Presenting a guidebook to our new world, both the theory and the practice, the book covers subjects as diverse as androids, biotech, electronic commerce, the acceleration of everyday life, access to information, the alliance between the military and the entertainment industries, feminism, democratic practice and human consciousness itself.Together, the essays--divided into separately introduced sections on society , culture, politics and economics--present a systematic and state-of-the-art overview of technology and society in the 21st Century.Contributors: John Armitage, Verena Andermatt Conley, James Der Derian, William H. Dutton, Phil Graham, Tim Jordan, Wan-Ying Ling, David Lyon, Ian Miles, Joanne Roberts, Saskia Sassen, Cathryn Vasseleu, McKenzie Wark, Frank Webster.

Interdisciplinary discussion of the ways in which the media is and can be used in the service of deliberative equality within the public sphere--and of the ways in which the media can function to both facilitate and inhibit deliberative democracy. [back cover].

Issue 3, Volume 10, of the Northwestern Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property