We have been privileged to work with Prof. Joe Turow of the Univ. of Penn.’s Annenberg School over the last few months on new media and marketing merger issues. Last fall, we asked him to brief the FTC and the Congress on the Google/DoubleClick merger. Prof. Turow brings a all-too-rare independent analysis to the critical issues involving the relationship of digital marketing to democratic civil society. We’re pleased the Washington Post, AP, and others cited him today in their coverage of the proposed deal. Here’s the full statement we helped send out to reporters yesterday: “Microsoft’s decision to buy Yahoo is a direct result of the decision by the FTC to allow Google to purchase DoubleClick. It is further evidence that despite the appearance of unlimited choice in the new media environment, people’s activities will be tracked and shaped by a very small number of companies who care far more about surveillance and targeted advertising than the public interest. The Federal government, which should have been the guardian of the public interest, has dropped the ball. A concerned public ought to call its political leaders to account about the problematic ways they are allowing the new digital world to develop.”
Joseph Turow is Robert Lewis Shayon Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of over 70 articles and 10 books on mass media industries, including Niche Envy: Marketing Discrimination in the Digital Age (MIT Press, 2006), and the editor of The Hyperlinked Society: Questioning Connections in the Digital Age (University of Michigan Press, forthcoming).
