All wired up and no place to go: The search for public space in U.S. cable development

This article describes cable systems in the United States and the ongoing processes of commercialization and concentration, as well as accompanying critical trends in technological development. Current policy issues are covered as a background to our discussion of issues relating to the nature of public communication in the U.S. The principle issues dealt with in this article are the closely related matters of what defines a public forum in the U.S. context of cable television and whose rights of freedom of expression must be considered in deciding the future structure of the industry.