Antitrust Proscription and the Mass Media

The shift in the business world's primary concern from one of greater industrial expansion to the present race in consumer motivation and concomitant marketing processes has elevated mass media to new importance in antitrust analytics. The author contends that the Supreme Court is moving far too slowly in accomodating the mass-media phenomenon to conventional antitrust wisdom. After examining the impact of mass media in the economic setting, and the Court's halting response, the author urges that only a radical change in antitrust perspective can hope to account for this institutional force in future decisions.