Manhattan.

• Author: Sunstein, Cass R.
• Position: 1961 "vast wasteland" speech by Newton Minow

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

There is a remarkable difference between television in 1961, when Newton Minow delivered his great "Vast Wasteland" speech, (1) and television in the current era. The difference is the increase in the number of channels. When Minow spoke, most Americans only had access to three or four stations. The big networks monopolized the system. In the modern era, most Americans have cable television, and this means that most Americans have access to about 100 or more stations. Indeed, many Americans have access to DIRECTV, which means that they have access to more than 500 stations. No one knows what innovations the future will bring, but it is clear that scarcity is a decreasing problem. Let us suppose, plausibly, that for the overwhelming majority of Americans, television will contain an extraordinarily wide range of options in the near future.

Certainly it is still possible to describe the fare of particular broadcasters and stations, on particular days, as a kind of wasteland. But it would not be possible to describe television in this way. In the modern era, television is much less like a wasteland and much more like Manhattan, in the sense that it contains an astonishingly wide range of options, suitable for many tastes. Those who want to see the news can watch the news all day, and on more than one channel (and C-SPAN is hardly a wasteland). Those who want to learn about history can watch The History Channel (not a wasteland in the least). Those interested in animals can watch Animal Planet (very far from a wasteland). Nor are children left out: the Disney Channel offers high-quality fare for children; so too does Nickelodeon. For consumers and citizens, what would seem to matter is the overall package and option set, not the offerings of a particular broadcaster. Does the idea of a "vast wasteland" have relevance today?

Consider an analogy: magazines. Many magazines are extremely low quality. They offer their readers little or nothing. Taken by themselves, they are not-so-vast wastelands. But the world of magazines is exceptionally diverse, with large differences in topics, points of view, seriousness, and quality. The world of television is not entirely different. Channel 71 might be akin to People, or occasionally even The National Enquirer, but channel 44 might be like National Geographic. Is this a problem? Or consider the more recent analogy of Internet Web sites. Many Web sites are a wasteland or worse; but the Internet is no wasteland. Television does not offer anything like the range of possibilities afforded by the Internet. But in its current incarnation, it is far closer to the Internet than was its 1961 version. Would it not seem odd for a regulator to complain that certain Web sites are wastelands if the overall package contains numerous options and if many of them are good?

We can go further. The idea of analogies itself might be misleading. The experiences of most people are not determined by any particular technology. Few people learn, or find entertainment, from only one source. Most people do not restrict themselves to magazines, or television, or the Internet, or, for that matter, radio, movies, DVDs, books, or newspapers. They tend to learn from, and to enjoy, some kind of mixture of all of these. And if they emphasize one of the available possibilities, it is because that is what they prefer. It might have been possible to express concern about the content of television in an era of three or four stations and a far more limited set of communications options. But in the modern era, people are free to choose among countless possibilities.

In these circumstances, it might be sensible to ask: What's the problem? If television viewers end up seeing a wasteland, it is because that is what they have chosen to see. In a free society, they are entitled to do exactly that. Of course the interests of children, much emphasized by Minow, cannot be entirely promoted by reference to choice. But parental choices surely matter, and good programming can certainly, and increasingly, be found for children as well. In short: Minow's concerns were relevant in 1961, simply because the options on television were so...