Back to the Future with Monroe Price

One of the bits of law scholarship that I enjoyed reading most back in the 90s was the work of Monroe Price on (as he called it) "the market for loyalties."  The idea was accessible, straightforward and--like a lot of other important ideas--in some ways a crystallization of stuff that had been in the air, but that nobody else had succeeded in realizing.

Price's core idea (and I'm working for memory now) was that "loyalty" in the sense of "citizenship or "national identity" could be understood as a commodity just like a can of peaches.  Nation-states flogged it and consumers "chose" it, or were battered into it, as the evidence might indicate.  Perhaps not surprisingly, Price viewed his topic through the template of his prior work in broadcasting and the regulation thereof.  He was quick to understand the anomalies in enterprises like the BBC, and phenomena like the competition over the communal persona.  I can't remember whether he wrote about sports clubs, but I certainly think he could have understood the curious irony of kids in Palookaville busting their bottlecaps over a victory for Man United.

Now here is The Economist with a great account of just how fully Price's vision has been realized:

... Western governments are losing their voices in the places where they most want to be heard.
The cold war was the state-backed broadcasters’ heyday, with big budgets for propaganda wars about the virtues and vices of capitalism and communism. Powerful short-wave transmissions required costly kit; getting hold of the frequencies required international arm-twisting. It was a game for big and rich countries only. Peter Horrocks, head of BBC Global News, recalls “a comfortable world”.

New technology has cut costs and demolished most barriers to entry. Wavebands matter less than bandwidth. Even for those unable to watch or listen on the internet, satellite dishes and fibre-optic cable are hugely expanding the choice of programmes.

Incumbents are struggling. In the past year the BBC World Service lost 8m viewers and listeners. Of the six American taxpayer-financed broadcasters that measure their reach, five see a decline. That poor performance came when budgets were generous. Now they will be flat or falling.
Since 2006 China, France, Iran, Japan and Qatar have launched English-language TV news channels. China has committed $7 billion to international news. That is more than 15 times the annual budget of the BBC World Service. Last month it introduced a second English-language news channel, CNC World. China’s international broadcasters have programming in more tongues than any other state-backed rival.
The new arrivals are conquering territory (and sometimes hiring staff) shed by established Western organisations.

Short-wave radio is a signal example. Since 2000 Voice of America has cut the number of short-wave frequencies on which it broadcasts by 24%, to 200. The BBC has abandoned short-wave broadcasts to Latin America, North America and most of Europe, to the chagrin and despair of some loyal listeners. In the same period China Radio International has almost doubled its short-wave output (see chart). It even broadcasts from Texas. Meanwhile the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America, proposes to abolish the last of its short-wave transmitters in the United States.Since 2006 China, France, Iran, Japan and Qatar have launched English-language TV news channels. China has committed $7 billion to international news. That is more than 15 times the annual budget of the BBC World Service. Last month it introduced a second English-language news channel, CNC World. China’s international broadcasters have programming in more tongues than any other state-backed rival.

The new arrivals are conquering territory (and sometimes hiring staff) shed by established Western organisations. Short-wave radio is a signal example. Since 2000 Voice of America has cut the number of short-wave frequencies on which it broadcasts by 24%, to 200. The BBC has abandoned short-wave broadcasts to Latin America, North America and most of Europe, to the chagrin and despair of some loyal listeners. In the same period China Radio International has almost doubled its short-wave output (see chart). It even broadcasts from Texas. Meanwhile the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America, proposes to abolish the last of its short-wave transmitters in the United States.