Gresham’s Law in Commercial Media from Early Radio to the Web: the Mechanics of Mediocrity
Gresham’s Law in Commercial Media from Early Radio to the Web: the Mechanics of Mediocrity by Wade Rowland Abstract: Market forces that are alleged to maximize quality and minimize price in consumer products systematically produce mediocrity in commercial mass media output. Consumers of commercial broadcast media do not get “what they want” from the broadcasters. Although the dynamic is widely recognized, its sources and mechanics are seldom analyzed. Identifying the product of commercial mass media as audiences rather than programming is the key to delineating the issues through an...
Read MoreA Modest Proposal: The Class Action Case Against Television
by Wade Rowland First it was big tobacco. Now, some of the victors in those multi-billion dollar David-and-Goliath class-action suits have turned their guns on the fast food industry, charging that junk food is responsible for a public health disaster no less appalling than tobacco’s. They have snack food giants like Kraft and Frito Lay running scared, stoking up their PR machines. The basic defense being offered is very similar to the one put up by the tobacco industry, and it’s based on freedom of choice. It amounts to arguing that nobody holds a gun to your head to make you eat...
Read MoreCanadian Corporate Rights and Canada’s Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision this July (2007) to uphold federal law restricting the advertising of tobacco was a welcome endorsement of government’s right to control the activities of corporations. Unfortunately, the reasoning used by the Court in dismissing big tobacco’s case may actually strengthen corporate power when the bigger picture is considered. The tobacco companies had argued that the law limiting advertising infringed on their right to freedom of expression under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court, in a unanimous decision, agreed, but went on to argue...
Read MoreCan the Corporate Workplace be a Moral Environment?
Note: In speaking to various groups concerned with corporate ethics a cluster of questions routinely arise. One of the most frequently asked is the one in the title. It’s always important that I preface my comments by emphasizing that I’m not speaking of corporations that are relatively small and still owned and/or controlled by their founders. I am, instead, speaking of the very large corporations that control the market and are listed on the world’s stock exchanges. There is no reason why corporations that are owned and controlled by individuals or families cannot behave morally, if...
Read MoreConscientious Capitalism? Not Likely.
As someone who has an interest in the connections between science and religion, I often look through the pages of Science and Theology News, a monthly magazine published, I believe by the Templeton Foundation. As its title suggests, it deals with controversies, discoveries, and research in the areas of moral philosophy that are (or ought to be) central to both science and religion. The cover story in the current (May, 2006) issue, for example deals with the ethical issues raised by the biotech revolution and how various scientific ethicists and moral philosophers interpret them. On the op-ed...
Read MoreWho was Galileo Galilei? An essay biography of Galileo
by Wade Rowland, author of Galileo’s Mistake: A New Look at the Epic Confrontation between Galileo and the Church As a hero of science, Galileo Galilei long ago achieved secular sainthood. A finger is preserved like a holy relic in the museum of science in Florence, a vertebra at the University of Padua. His lavish tomb in Florence’s magnificent basilica of Santa Croce has been newly buffed and polished by an officially contrite Church. But he continues to be admired for all the wrong reasons. One can imagine him, wherever he has been ensconced in death, fulminating as he did in...
Read MoreAbout Wade Rowland
Ranked among Canada's leading literary journalists, Wade Rowland has had produced more than a dozen books on subjects ranging from television journalism, organized crime and international environmental law to his current concerns, which include communications technology, the philosophy of science and the sources of human values. Full author bio.