License to Steal: John Malone and the Making of Pipeline Entrepreneurialism 3 views

John Malone was a singular figure in the history of American media. This thesis argues that Malone's activities as CEO of Tele-Communications, Inc. represented a historically specific entrepreneurial style: that of the pipeline entrepreneur. In the final days of the Bell monopoly, entrepreneurs like Malone took advantage of new opportunities to claim a stake in an increasingly dynamic telecommunications market. As they organized to finance and to build new communications infrastructure, entrepreneurs like Malone made emergent ideas about competition, freedom, and information material and durable. In the process, they constructed new social worlds. At same time, alternative visions for the technology of cable television were excluded. This thesis uses cable television's trade press in the 1970s and early 1980s and histories of the US media industry in the late 20th century to examine the consequences of these processes.

MA (Master of Arts)

cable television; John Malone; media industries; infrastructure

English

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2026-05-01