|
VIEW THE TRAILER:
|
|
WATCH THE FULL-LENGTH PREVIEW:
|
If a key indicator of the health of a democracy is the state of its journalism, the United States is in deep trouble. In
Rich Media, Poor Democracy, Robert McChesney lays the blame for this state of affairs squarely at the doors of the corporate boardrooms of big media, which far from delivering on their promises of more choice and more diversity, have organized a system characterized by a lack of competition, homogenization of opinion and formulaic programming.
Through numerous examples, McChesney, and media scholar, Mark Crispin Miller, demonstrate how journalism has been compromised by the corporate bosses of conglomerates such as
Disney, Sony, Viacom, News Corp, and
AOL Time Warner to produce a system of news that is high on sensationalism and low on information. They suggest that unless citizen activism can reclaim the commons, this new corporate system will be characterized by a rich media and an ever impoverished, poor democracy.
Sections: Who Is Sumner Redstone & Why Should We Care? | Who Gave the Airwaves Away? | Welcome to The Revolution? | But What About The First Amendment? | What Happened to the News?
Duration: 30 min
ISBN: 1-893521-82-6
Date Produced: 2003
Subtitles: English & Spanish
Discussion Guide
TranscriptFilmmaker & Scholar InfoExecutive Producer: Sut Jhally
Producers: Loretta Alper & Margo Robb
Editor: Jeremy Smith
About Robert McChesney
Robert W. McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department
of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In
2002, he co-founded Free Press, and served as its president until April
2008. McChesney hosts the
Media Matters weekly radio program
every Sunday afternoon on NPR-affiliate WILL-AM. McChesney has written
or edited 17 books. His most recent books are
The Political Economy of Media and
Communication Revolution.
About Mark Crispin Miller
Mark Crispin Miller is a professor of media studies at New York
University, where he also directs the Project on Media Ownership. His
writings on film, television, advertising and rock music have appeared
in numerous journals and newspapers, including
The Nation and
The New York Times. In 1988, he published his first book,
Boxed In: The Culture of TV, followed by
Seeing Through Movies,
Mad Scientists: The Secret History of Modern Propaganda, Spectacle: Operation Desert Storm and the Triumph of Illusion, and The Bush Dyslexicon. His newest book is Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order.
7-Day Streaming Rental ($50):
"[Opens] up questions of ownership and conglomeration. Would serve as a solid introduction to any course on media criticism."
- Michelle Stewart | Transformations
There are currently no reviews of this
product.
Submit a Review
