Fairness Reconsidered: Receiving Audience as a Commons

The conceit of the Fairness Doctrine was that broadcast spectrum was a commons, and a limited public resource, arbitrarily allocated to a given (usually private) party. The right came with the obligation to manage this common resource in the public interest....

[What if we hold that] that public mindshare is itself a commons, and should be held and managed in the public interest. There’s a point at which reach or penetration themselves become exploitation of a public resource, and concern over the impacts of such reach are legitimate public concerns.

In information theory, a Sender transmits through a Channel to a Reciver. Fairness Doctrine was concerned with the receiver, but justified on the basis of the channel. I'm arguing that receiver itself is a valid justification.

An idea I'm kicking around. As with other recent posts, much of the meat is in comments, though the main article does cover much of the basics in this case.

https://joindiaspora.com/posts/9e961b604c870139d3b1002590d8e506

#FairnessDoctrine #Media #MediaPolicy #InformationTheory #DonaldPMullally #DigitalMedia #OnlineMedia