The analyses of the interests of consumers and citizens in Parts I and II obviously have direct policy relevance for many media issues. Different illustrations are possible. The analyses not only justify large-scale subsidies for institutions like public broadcasting but have direct implications for the design of such institutions. They could also justify and direct the form of subsidies and other regulations for print media, increasing their independence from market and advertising pressures. For at least three reasons, however, I use the final two chapters to apply these analyses to the global issue of free trade in media products.

First, the trade issue's practical importance is immense. Huge monetary stakes are implicated. Cultural products are the United States' second largest export item. Moreover, people in many countries consider the ability to protect their cultural industries as vital to their cultural and democratic development, possibly even to their survival as a nation. This view is not new. In the 1920s, a Canadian editorial argued that “if we depend on the [] United States … for our reading matter we might as well move our government to Washington. … The press is a stronger cohesive agent than [P]arliament.” On the other hand, the United States often asserts that the free flow of information, which it typically treats as connoting private media ownership and free trade, is basic to democracy.

Second, the issue is not merely academic and is not about to go away. The dominant though not universal view in both Canada and Europe is resolutely against imposing free-trade rules on cultural or media products.