to keep market share in a growing field of rivals. Cable net-
works such as HBO and Showtime produce much of the best
original programming. And more and more viewers get their
news from such alternative sources as CNN, Fox (on the right),
MSNBC (on the left), and Comedy Central, home of two of
today’s most trusted and unlikely newscasters, Jon Stewart and
Stephen Colbert. Thanks to Tivo and other means of record-
ing programs for later viewing, people watch their favorite
shows whenever they choose, and only the masochistic need to
sit through commercials, a development that threatens the very
economic basis of commercial TV.
Deregulation changed the airline industry forever, giving
birth to new cut-rate airlines and driving Pan Am and other ven-
erable carriers out of business. But the use of airplanes as flying
megabombs in the 2001 terrorists attacks was a devastating blow
to the airline industry, and the Draconian tightening of security
procedures afterward made flying less attractive than ever. In
2008, soaring gas prices caused airlines to raise ticket prices,
trim schedules, and impose fuel surcharges and bag-checking
fees. To avoid burgeoning travel costs, more and more compa-
nies turned to new videoconferencing technology, putting even
more financial pressure on the troubled airline industry.
America’s aging population is changing its economy—indeed
its culture—in ways that are only beginning to be felt. American
demographics are shifting in other ways. Latinos have an in-
creasingly powerful voice in American life, as evidenced by the
significant role Latino voters played in the election of Barack
Obama. Globalization is shaping American life at every turn.
American business once owned the American market and much
of the European market as well. Today publishing and other
sectors of the American economy are largely European-owned,
Mastering the Context