The Future of American Communications Working Group (FACT) consisting of 16 scholars of 11 leading American universities and working under the auspices of the Institute for Information Policy at the College of Communications at Penn State University has produced a volume titled "...and communications for all": A Policy Agenda for a New Administration outlining a new vision for communications policy in America and the practical steps needed to achieve it.The book of recommendations, to published by Lexington Books, will be launched on January 26, 2009 at the New America Foundation. The project was funded by the Media Democracy Fund.

Summary of Recommendations

“. . . And Communications for All offers many essential policy adjustments that the new administration should implement to promote a more affordable, open communications network that advances democracy and enhances freedom.”
—Gene Kimmelman, vice president, Federal and International Affairs, Consumer Union

“Few issues are more fundamental to the healthy functioning of our democracy than the existence of an open and diverse media system. For too long communication scholars have been absent from ongoing policy debates about how to best achieve this goal.This timely and excellent collection of essays, written by some of the leading scholars in the field, goes a long way toward remedying this abdication of our public interest obligation.”
—Michael X. Delli Carpini, dean, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Table of Contents

• Broadband, Internet, and Universal Service: Challenges to the Social Contract of the Twenty-First Century by Jorge Reina Schement, Ph.D., Professor and Dean, School of Communications, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers University

• Digital Media, Modern Democracy, and Our Truncated National Debate by Ernest J. Wilson III, Ph.D., Walter Annenberg Chair in Communication and dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California

• Public Scholarship and the Communications Policy Agenda by Robert W. McChesney, Ph.D., Gutgsell Endowed Professor, Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• International Benchmarks: The Crisis in U.S. Communications Policy Through a Comparative Lens by Amit M. Schejter, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Communications and co-Director of the Institute for Information Policy, Penn State University

• Competition and Investment in Wireline Broadband by Marvin Ammori, J.D., Assistant Professor of Law, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, College of Law

• U.S. Cable TV Policy: Managing the Transition to Broadband by Richard D. Taylor, J.D., Ph.D., Palmer Chair and Professor of Telecommunication Studies and co-director of the Institute for Information Policy, Penn State University

• A Spectrum Policy Agenda by Jon M. Peha, Ph.D., Full Professor in the Department of Engineering & Public Policy and the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Associate Director of the Center for Wireless and Broadband Networking, Carnegie Mellon University

• The Way Forward for Wireless by Robert M. Frieden, J.D., Professor and Pioneers Chair in Cable Telecommunications, Penn State University

• Rethinking the Media Ownership Policy Agenda by Philip Napoli, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communications & Media Management and Director of the Donald McGannon Communication Research Center, Fordham University

• Universal Service by Krishna Jayakar, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communications, Penn State University

• America’s Forgotten Challenge: Rural Access by Sharon Strover, Ph.D., Chair and Philip G. Warner Regents Professor, Department Radio-television-Film and Director of the Telecommunications and Information Policy Institute, University of Texas

• Municipal Broadband by Andrea H. Tapia, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Information Sciences and Technology and Affiliate Assistant Professor, Department of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations, Penn State University

• The Future of the E-Rate: U.S. Universal Service Fund Support for Public Access and Social Services by Heather E. Hudson, Ph.D., Director of the Communications Technology Management Program in the School of Business Administration at the University of San Francisco.

Part IV: Content

• Public Service Media 2.0 by Ellen P. Goodman, J.D., Professor of Law, Rutgers School of Law - Camden

• Creating a Media Policy Agenda for the Digital Generation by Kathryn Montgomery, Ph.D., Professor, School of Communication, American University

• Race and Media: Several Key Proposals for the Next Administration by Leonard M. Baynes, J.D., M.B.A., Professor of Law and the inaugural Director of The Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development at St. John's University School of Law

• This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Communications and co-Director of the Institute for Information Policy, Penn State University