David Poltrack and Jorge Schement examine the changing economic base of American television, the role of audiences and audience-measurement, and the broader role of consumption and advertising in the evolution of American television. Though younger technologies such as iPods and cell phones signify the emerging digital era in the popular imagination, the transformation of television from a broadcast medium offering limited channels to a digitally enhanced environment of (apparently) infinite choice may be far more significant in social and historical terms. Find out more about the new economics of television by visiting [MIT Communications Forum](http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum).
David F. Poltrack is Executive Vice President of Research and Planning at CBS Television. In this post, which he has held since April 1994, he oversees all television research activities of CBS Television, encompassing audience measurement, market research, program testing and advertising research. He is responsible for the monitoring of the national and international video marketplace.
In addition to teaching at Rutgers, Jorge Reina Schement has held positions at Stanford University, the University of Texas at Austin, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, and the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at UCLA. Schement, a renowned expert on communication and information policy, will become the new dean of the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies on July 1. Schement, most recently distinguished professor of telecommunications in the College of Communications at Penn State, replaces the retiring Gustav Friedrich. Schement's research and scholarship address issues in the areas of information policy, global telecommunications, the social aspects of the information age, Spanish-language media, and information-consumer behavior. More specifically, he has focused on the social and policy consequences of the production and consumption of information, with a special interest in policy as it relates to ethnic minorities. A graduate of Southern Methodist University, Schement earned his doctorate in communication at Stanford University's Institute for Communications Research and his master's degree at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is the author or editor of 10 books, with two additional volumes in preparation, 100 articles and reports, multiple other papers and presentations, and a substantial list of corporate and foundation grants.