Discusses how utopian talk about cable television as a dramatic new technology swept through the policy arena in the 1970s. Analyzes this talk as a discursive practice to demonstrate both the value of discourse analysis and some contradictions of the policy process. Shows how discourse thus helped shape an institution that it failed to describe.…

Arguing that serious students of telecommunications policy must consider the impact that government deregulation will have on virtually every aspect of communications policymaking, this paper examines two goals that deregulators have deemed essential: convincing regulators that the marketplace is synonomous with public interest, and demonstrating…