THE POWER TO INFORM: Media: The Information Business

by Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1973

A white paper on the media and the most penetrating spotlight since Mr. Agnew rightly raised some questions but missed the point. It's hardly news that we're drowning in news, that often it's slanted, that, even more to the point, it's apt to be non-information, the content, more calorie than protein, hardly justifying the remarkable technology that transmits it. To find out why this is so Servan-Schreiber, a finance authority and French journalist (not to be confused with Jean-Jacques) takes a hard and largely objective look at the information business (here and abroad) as the business of information: the journalist as well as the publishers; the economics of media (at the New York Times, for example, advertising accounts for 75 percent of revenue); commercial television, public broadcasting and cable TV; magazines; the development of media, its history and present state; its power, problems and responsibility; and the technological innovations yet to come. The thorny issue of freedom of the press concerns him less than our (i.e. the public's) freedom of information, a subtle but important distinction which was at the center of the Pentagon Papers conflict. Acting as the public's ombudsman Servan-Schreiber calls for the media to redefine its goals and question its own validity -- only by doing so, he concludes, can the press justify its freedom to inform.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION