Edited by Jane Wardlow Prettyman,
formerly at (the old) Esquire Magazine
"Campaign finance reform and media reform are directed at the same
societal illness--the influence of private corporate money that
improperly negates civic need and public choice."
--Ben Bagdikian, "The Media Monopoly"
FIRST STOP: THE NEWS LETTER: What's New on American Review?
THE AMERICAN REVIEW LIBRARY:
A CALL FOR MEDIA REFORM: When Ben Bagdikian's important work "The Media Monopoly" was first published in 1983, 50 corporations owned most of American media. By the time the fifth edition appeared in 1997, only 10 corporations control almost everything we see, hear and read, leading to loss of depth, range and quality in the news and limitation of subjects addressed on the national agenda to those that won't rock the corporate boat. Here are 15 steps toward media reform without which effort America stands at the threshold of centralized corporate control of information. Read a review and summary of Badikian's "Media Monopoly," Some Things Considered here on American Review.
GET MEDIA-ACTIVE: Various ways to actively engage the media for you and the whole family. How to write a good letter to the news manager (don't call 'em editors, call 'em news managers).
THE HEART OF THE MATTER OF MEDIA: Essays deconstructing media by Kathleen Hall Jamieson (Annenberg School of Communications at the Univ. of PA), Ellen Hume (Annenberg Fellow), Robert Putnam (Harvard), Lewis Lapham (Harper's), Noam Chomsky (MIT), Ben Bagdikian (Berkeley) and others. The heavy-hitters.
FAIR: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, the highly respected media-watch organization. They get under the skin of media and probe media misinformation and distortions. Bookmark FAIR and support them with a contribution.
THE NEWS EXAMINER: Jane Prettyman's essays on subjects ranging from polling to talk radio to C-SPAN to "the tabloid mind" to what Edward R. Murrow might say about today's news media.
MEDIA-ON-MEDIA: Framing the Time-Warner/Turner Merger: Two scholars at the University of Texas offer a fascinating analysis of how a mega-media merger was covered by the media. The "frame" is often called the angle, theme, perspective, or slant. The authors find that the ownership structure of a media organization can have a potentially powerful, though subtle, influence on media content. In part, this is accomplished through framing the story. Pertinent in light of watching coverage of subsequent merger between AOL and Time Warner.
MEDIA AWARENESS & LITERACY: Several choice links for parents, youngsters and students. Includes discussion of commercial Channel One Online being piped into schools.
INSIGHT & OUTLOOK: Beginning with Scott London's excellent Website, this area explores subjects like the National Issues Forum for public deliberation of issues and a link to an astounding site that describes a National Issues Convention in early 1996 in which a slew of people spent 3 days together and participated in a "deliberative poll." They were polled when they entered and polled after 3 days deliberation. Their changes of opinion will amaze you.
MISSING STORIES: Under-reported news that rocks the boat of corporate/consumerist culture and our image of what we like to think of ourselves as a society or what we think is true, such as the extensive rise of hate groups, skinheads among middle class high school students, and the rhetorical bridging to the fringe done purposefully by conservative politicians. Also, a RAND study for the Pentagon showing that, yes, gays can be successfully integrated into the military; Project Censored's under-reported stories, etc.
SPECIAL EDITIONS:
August 1998 to Aug 1999:
The Cassini Debate--and Beyond: Educate yourself on NASA's plutonium-laden Saturn probe and potential consequences of routine use of plutonium in space.
January to July 1997, Updated Feb 2000:
Holy Cow! Mad Cow Disease Enters the Human Food Chain. An in-depth report picking up on Richard Rhodes' book "Deadly Feasts" about Britain's "mad cow disease." Don't laugh--this thing is deadly indeed. In Britain there is a threat to the human food supply and here in the U.S. the FDA ordered a controversial--and media-wise whisper-quiet--ban on ruminant feeds to prevent Britain's disaster from occuring in the U.S. You'll find links to research here as well as transcripts of public meetings conducted by the FDA regarding the feed ban. A classic "missing story" that later got surface publicity in the Oprah Winfrey trial, but despite this massive opportunity for public education, the media never give us details about the disease. Read them here.
Late 1996 to mid 1997:
The Real News on Newt's Ethics: Old news now but this character never ceases to fascinate. Here's the seamy underside of the Gingrich ethics crisis that most in the newsmedia neglected to bring to light. His pique over sitting in the back of the plane was nothing compared to his anger over being pinned to the wall on ethics charges. He quietly gained revenge by orchestrating the impeachment of a President for lying about an affair, while Newt himself -- we now find -- was having a steamy little affair himself. What a guy.
MEDIAGATE: HYPING WHITEWATER: How the news media beat this dead horse for all it was (not) worth in cheap above-the-fold "news" that depended for proof on phrases like "perhaps," "possibly," "likely," "may have," "might have," "could have," "appearance of," "if true" and "questions raised" while never answering the questions with factual evidence. Herewith, factual evidence of journalistic negligence deservedly known as Mediagate.
IMPEACHMENT EDITIONS:
VIEWER'S GUIDE TO TALK NEWS:
Who's who among talking heads in the
Clinton-Starr "trial by media." Featured on PBS.
IMPEACHMENT "COUP GUIDE"
THE MEDIA FRENZY:
Including:
* "Elder at the Gates": What moves Ken Starr?
* "Media's Ethical Role in Grand Jury Leaks." Are reporters--ethically speaking--accessories to a crime?
THE ALLODIUM: BOOKMARK THE FREE ZONE. This "freehold beyond feudal control" is a sub-site of American Review that takes the bull by the horns in no uncertain terms in original articles that critique various aspects of commercial media coverage of politics. Currently inactive but the archives are fascinating.
RESOURCES & LINKS
“To give citizens a choice of ideas is to give them a choice of politics.
If a nation has narrowly controlled information, it will soon have narrowly controlled politics.”
--Ben Bagdikian, "The Media Monopoly," on centralized corporate control of the news.
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1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 by Jane Wardlow Prettyman. No commercial distribution of anything on this site is allowed. Because some material appears here by special permission from others, please request advance permission before distributing any material from The Real News Page.