Seizing The Airwaves: A Free Radio Handbook
Ron Sakolsky, Stephen Dunifer, Editors
(AK Press, 1998)

The first book to document and emphasize the myriad voices of the free radio movement, from Black Liberation Radio in Springfield, Illinois, to Free Radio Berkeley in Berkeley, California. The first section, 'Media Monopoly And The Rise Of The Free Radio Movement' includes contributions from Robert McChesney on the political economy of radio in North America and a history and analysis of the burgeoning pirate radio movement. The second section, 'On The Air,' includes interviews with and commentary by some of the key grass roots participants in micropower broadcasting worldwide from Canada, Holland, Haiti and Mexico, as well as America. The final section of the book consists of a comprehensive technical guide and how-to manual for going on the air, complete with schematics and 'sound' advice.

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The Piracy of America: Profiteering in the Public Domain
Judith Scherff, Editor
(Clarity Press, Inc., 1999)

Publisher's Note:  Are there sectors of the wealth of America which should be safeguarded in the public interest — our waterways, the air we breathe, our forests, wildlife, and mineral resources? This collection of over 20 well-researched articles by authoritative environmentalists addresses the full spectrum of issues surrounding the exploitation of the natural resources of America. It documents how the current mix of public and corporate policy generates private profit at public cost, and raises serious questions as to whether current practice provides either overall systemic efficiency, or protects the rights of future generations — let alone the health, wealth and well-being of the present generation of Americans. Further, this anthology illustrates how corporate America, striking back at growing public environmentalism, seeks to sway public opinion through influencing the gathering and dissemination of scientific information and research. Business practices within the communications industry threaten the integrity of media reporting on environmental issues. As corporate America steps up its onslaught on the perceived environmentalist threat, we now witness the mobilization of pro-business political constituencies among religious groups and the public at large in support of the corporate agenda as it concerns the environment. Some sample articles: "American Forests", "Cash Register Rivers: Lost to Private Profit", "Science for Sale", "Corporate Welfare and the Environment", "Environmental Disease Clusters", "An Environmental Wedge: The 'Wise Use' Movement and the Insurgent Right Wing". Challenging whether the pro-business perspective advocated by diverse religious groups accurately represents the trueposition of Christians, anthologist Scherff opens her collection with "The Science of Communion" by the Very Reverend James P arks Morton, elaborating the Christian concepts of stewardship and respect for all creation, and closes it with Reverend Thomas Punzo's call to action, titled "Complicity with Evil". A list of activist resources and organizations is included in the Appendix.

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Jamming the Media: A Citizen's Guide: Reclaiming the Tools of Communication
By Gareth Branwyn
(Chronicle Books, 1997)

The author provides a history of the media movement and examines the tactics and strategies used on the front lines of media.

In one of the most complete handbooks to mass communication ever, cyber-culture expert Gareth Branwyn guides the wired and soon-to-be wired through the use of public-access television, film, video, the Internet and more. This groundbreaking, comprehensive guide is full of easy-to-follow instructions, hands-on information, practical hints and case studies.

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We the Media: A Citizen's Guide to Fighting for Media Democracy
Don Hazen and Julie Winokur, editors.
(The New Press, 1997)

Highlights the alternative organizations, leaders and media makers who are successfully fighting the conglomerates and demanding that media and democracy go together.

With contributions from media critics like Mark Crispin Miller, Bill Moyers, Max Frankel, Orville Schell, James Fallows and Leslie Savan, "We the Media" explores the extent to which mass media skews American public perceptions of major issues. The increasing globalization of the media industry, the impact of advertising on perceptions of the world, the changing roles of print and electronic communications and the emerging presence of the Internet are but a few of the issues covered and explored under the capable editorial direction of Don Hazen, former publisher of Mother Jones magazine, and freelance writer/editor Julie Winokur. "We the Media" also highlights the alternative organizations, leaders, and the media makers who are successfully fighting the conglomerates and demanding that media and democracy go together.

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Progressive Guide to Alternative Media & Investigating News
By Project Censored
(Seven Stories Press, 1999)

Divided into alphabetical listings of National Alternative Publications, Regional Publications, Organizations and Activist Groups, "The Progressive Guide" provides addresses, phone and fax numbers, web and e-mail addresses and brief descriptions for these organizations. It allows one to both find groups of like-minded individuals as well as gain access to the press through alternative organizations. Meant to foster the free flow of ideas and subvert the homogeneity of the dominant media, this reference guide aims to put the "movement" back into the Progressive Movement.

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The Media Monopoly
By Benjamin H. Bagdikian
(Beacon Press, 2000)

Review from St. Petersburg Times: "One of the most important critiques of the press ever written."

Review from Chicago Tribune: "An eye-opening attack on the growing concentration of major media." — Clarence Page

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PR!: A Social History of Spin
By Stuart Ewen
(Basic Books, 1998)

This book shows how the art of public relations has molded the "public mind" and warped the contours of American democracy.

"Will take its place alongside Walter Lippmann's 'Public Opinion,' Jacques Ellul's 'The Technological Society' and Marshall McLuhan's 'Understanding Media.' " — Neil Postman

"A sweeping, lively story of the people, events and concepts that have made public perceptions serve private power in the U.S." — George Gerbner

Review from The New York Times, 11/03/1996: "The book ... is an illuminating tale of the rise of public relations, that strange cousin of advertising and propaganda." — Deborah Stead

Review from The New York Times Book Review, 03/02/1997: "Mr. Ewen shows how propaganda machines persuaded Americans to buy everything from a new car to a new war and how, particularly in our political lives, emotionally laden symbolism has taken the place of critical dialogue."

"A social critic and historian concerned with images and the power they have on society, Ewen (Channels of Desire, Univ. of Minnesota, 1992) presents here a social history of public relations in the United States. Modern PR rose as an attempt to explain the turmoil and confusion that occurred in the country from the end of the Civil War to the first decade of the 20th century. Public reaction to the excesses of industrialization and the growing immigrant classes caused many in power to fear that the 'American way of life' was being destroyed. Ewen reviews the ongoing conflict in public relations between those who think the public is rational and want to present the facts and let people make up their minds, and those who think that opinion can be shaped by appeals to unconscious urges. Ewen gives fascinating examples of the communication similarities between FDR and Reagan, and why AT&T was loved by the public and Standard Oil hated. This provocative book should be purchased by all public and academic libraries." — William W. Sannwald, San Diego Public Library

Is there any difference between PR and propaganda? Ewen ('All Consuming Images'), a professor of media studies at Hunter College in Manhattan, doesn't think so. Accordingly, his account of the rise of the public relations industry begins with the U.S. Committee on Public Information, a government-sponsored organization dedicated to maintaining domestic morale during World War I. In the aftermath of the war, Ewen argues, public relations developed largely out of a corporate fear that genuine democracy would obstruct the workings of big business, with PR pioneer Edward Bernays offering, as he phrased it, lessons in "the engineering of consent." As corporations like AT&T began to perceive the importance of utilizing public relations in the face of a public increasingly suspicious of monolithic companies, the PR industry hit its stride by learning to incorporate many of the tactics and iconography of the New Deal while simultaneously opposing its progressive politics. Ewen's book trails off after the 1940s; he doesn't substantially probe the colossal impact of television or the incursion of PR methods into politics in more recent times. And although he presents a convincing portrait of a business elite attempting to use techniques of persuasion to distort and mold public opinion, he doesn't fully address the question of PR's effectiveness.

Publisher's Note: Based on unexplored and often confidential sources from AT&T, the National Association of Manufacturers, Standard Oil and other major institutions, this book shows how the art of public relations has molded the "public mind" and warped the contours of American democracy. Beginning during World War I, the book chronicles the birth pangs and coming of age of the PR culture and explores the ideas that have inspired PR strategies down through the years. 30 photos.

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Drive-By Journalism — The Assault on Your Need to Know
By Arthur Rowse
(Common Courage Press, 2000)

"Is it already too late to save ourselves from media tyranny?" In his thorough presentation of the underbelly of the business of media, Rowse clears the smoke and cracks the mirrors of the established norms of daily news. From the corruption of news with business mergers, exploiting the first amendment and tailoring national politics to meet media needs, "Drive By Journalism," points a long finger at those that play the media game but have forgotten how to do their jobs. In a world where ratings drive newsworthiness, Arthur Rowse takes the less traveled path of truth in reporting. "Drive By Journalism" shows us that he travels that road with few companions. In a hard hitting challenge to the abusers of freedom of speech "Drive by Journalism" sounds the call to the media that the job is not to make money, it is to report the news.

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Real Majority, Media Minority: The Cost of Sidelining Women in Reporting
By Laura Flanders
(Common Courage Press, 1997)

Publisher's press release:  In part thanks to writers and activists like Laura Flanders of FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), there are now more women working in U.S. news media than ever before. Women have moved up the ranks at almost every major news outlet and all the broadcast networks boast at least one celebrity female anchor. But have more women in the industry produced better coverage of women's rights and so-called "women's issues?" In her first book, Flanders, host of the nationally-syndicated radio program CounterSpin, says not.

While some women have become multi-million dollar earners, the perspectives of most women are still sidelined, Flanders documents. And that's not just sexism, she says, in "Real Majority, Media Minority" — it's bad reporting:

"Not reporting on the fastest growing group of the world's workers, the people whose work styles and wages are likely soon to be the norm, isn't only unfair and inaccurate, but dangerous, and not just for women and girls."

"Real Majority, Media Minority" gathers together into one collection almost ten years of Flanders' extraordinary essays and interviews analyzing the structure and habits of commercial newsmedia. In an eloquent argument, she says it's time to go beyond simple "bean counting." "What's critical isn't who's telling the story, but how the story's being told," says Flanders.

In the section of the book "Public Enemy Number One?" Flanders takes a close look at media coverage of the welfare debate and finds ABC's Diane Sawyer was as guilty as anyone of waging what became a media "war on poor females." In "Beware: PR Implants" Flanders accuses Gina Kolata of The New York Times of uncritically accepting the corporations' line in the battle between drug companies like Dow Chemical and the recipients of silicone breast implants.

Flanders points out that two decades after the victory of Roe vs. Wade, pro-choice advocates were still shut out of the debate when Nightline interviewed advocates of doctor-killing on the politics of abortion. The newspapers of record still ignore violence against women's health clinics when they review domestic terrorism in America.

In one of the most revealing sections of the book — called "Ripe for the Right" — Flanders suggests that the rewards of years of feminist media criticism are now being reaped by anti-feminists:

"After years of ignoring the expertise of women's organizations, one women's group has stepped into the media's spotlight ... the Independent Women's Forum" whose premier representative, Laura Ingraham (once the organizer of 'Women for Judge Clarence Thomas') is now the belle of mainstream media's ball."

Among others who are interviewed here are Pacifica's Radio's Amy Goodman on her confrontation of Newt Gingrich; Jill Nelson on her experience at the Washington Post; Margaret Lazarus (Academy Award winning director of "Defending Our Lives") on her battle with PBS; Frances Fox Piven on Welfare, Betsy Hartman on CNN's spin on population control.

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States of Emergency: Documentaries, Wars, Democracies
By Patricia R. Zimmermann
(University of Minnesota Press, 2000)

Today's political, technological, and aesthetic landscapes are rife with landmines. In this embattled milieu, leftist filmmakers and conservatives struggle for control of the national imaginary. Amid unprecedented mergers and consolidations, political conservatives have launched major attacks against the National Endowment for the Arts, the Public Broadcasting System, state arts councils, and other sponsors of oppositional programming. Meanwhile, developing technologies like satellites and the Internet have not only altered and globalized communication but also offer untapped possibilities for reconstructing democracies. All of these events signal a radical transformation in how we will view the world in the decades to come.

In States of Emergency, Patricia R. Zimmermann describes the shifting terrains socially engaged documentary artists and experimental filmmakers encounter in the aftermath of these changes. Public space has been chiseled away and politically conscious documentaries forced to go underground. Viewing an array of subjects (including the wars in Bosnia, Chiapas, and the Persian Gulf; Japanese internment during World War II; homelessness; race; and reproductive rights) through technologies ranging from high-end video, camcorders, cable access, digital imaging systems, and media piracy, Zimmermann creates an explosive montage of colliding ideas and events. In combative terms, she charts the intricately layered relationships between independent documentary, power, money, and culture, and also analyzes how media artists use new technologies and radical media practices to undermine cuts in support and conservative backlash.

States of Emergency anchors documentary into a social and historical context that shows the complex connections among audiences, filmmakers, funders, and subjects in the fascinating and fraught milieu in which they coexist. Zimmermann passionately and convincingly argues that the survival of democracies and public spaces is inextricably fueled by the robust endurance of documentary and other insurgent forms of communication.

Patricia R. Zimmermann is professor of cinema and photography at Ithaca College and the author of Reel Families: A Social History of Amateur Film (1995).

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The Media & Morality
Robert M. Baird, William E. Loges, Stuart E. Rosenbaum, editors.
(Prometheus Books, 1999)

Publisher's Note:  Being first with a major news story drives the media to inform the public. But what limits, if any, can or should be placed on the media's vital role when their need to attract readers, listeners or viewers compels them to jeopardize people's freedom (Richard Jewell), privacy (President Clinton and other public figures), and even personal safety (Princess Diana) in their rush to get the scoop, sell newspapers and magazines and increase viewer numbers? To whom are the media responsible — the public, the stockholders, the advertisers? Who decides what may "harm" an audience or what is unsuitable for children? How do political agendas affect censorship and media profits? Are radical new media standards needed in light of increasing numbers of big stories based on bad reporting and lax research? These and other questions are probed in this wide-ranging selection of essays that explores the relationships between the media and their diverse audiences, sponsors, corporate owners, governments and others.

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The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word
By Mitchell Stephens
(Oxford University Press, 1998)

Mitchell Stephens, a professor of journalism, asserts that the moving image is likely to make our thoughts not more feeble but more robust.

Review from Library Journal, 09/01/1998: "The Information Revolution is upon us. The world of the printed word is dying, and moving images are gaining ground. MTV, 'Sesame Street,' and the old stand-by 'Laugh In' have thrust 'multiple fragments' of fast-cut images in our faces, and we enjoy, learn and revel in them. Such is the philosophy of Stephens (journalism and mass communications, New York University), solidly explained and delineated with powerful insights into the classics of literature, film and television. Although he foresees the 'fall' of the printed word, Stephens says it will not be so bad. The 'New Video' will bring us joy and great avenues for learning, teaching and appreciating the world. As in his 'A History of News: From the Drum to the Satellite' (LJ 10/15/88), Stephens paints a much broader picture of mass communication and where it is heading, citing examples such as Flaubert, Shakespeare and even 'Ally McBeal.' Easy to read and fascinating to think about, this is a keeper. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries." — Kay Bowes, Wilmington Inst. Library, Delaware

Review from The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, 11/08/1998: "For those with an interest in experimental film, this book is a must. For the general reader who wants to understand the direction our culture is taking, 'The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word' offers insight into our rapidly changing forms of communication. And for those who remain wedded to the written word in all its elegant stillness and silent majesty, his message will be disquieting." — Leonard Shlain

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Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media
By Pamela Newkirk
(New York University Press, 2000)

Newkirk exposes the trials and triumphs of African-American journalists as they struggle in newsrooms across America in pursuit of more equitable coverage of racial minorities.

Publisher's Note:  Thirty years ago, the Kerner Commission Report made national headlines by exposing the consistently biased coverage afforded African-Americans in the mainstream media. While the report acted as a much ballyhooed wake-up call, the problems it identified have stubbornly persisted, despite the infusion of black and other racial minority journalists into the newsroom. In "Within the Veil," Pamela Newkirk unmasks the ways in which race continues to influence reportage, both overtly and covertly. Newkirk charts a series of race-related conflicts at news organizations across the country, illustrating how African-American journalists have influenced — and been denied influence to — the content, presentation and very nature of news. Through anecdotes culled from interviews with over 100 broadcast and print journalists, Newkirk exposes the trials and triumphs of African-American journalists as they struggle in newsrooms across America in pursuit of more equitable coverage of racial minorities. She illuminates the agonizing dilemmas African-American journalists face when writing stories critical of blacks, stories which force them to choose between journalistic integrity, their own advancement and the almost certain enmity of the black community. "Within the Veil" is a gripping front-line report on the continuing battle to integrate America's newsrooms — and news coverage.

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Information Inequality: The Communications Industry & the Deepening Social Crisis in America
By Herbert I. Schiller
(Routledge, 1996)

Publisher's Note:  Herbert Schiller, long one of America's leading critics of the communications industry, here offers a salvo in the battle over information. In "Information Inequality" he explains how privatization and the corporate economy directly affect our most highly prized democratic institutions: schools and libraries, media and political culture. A master media-watcher, Schiller presents a crisp and far-reaching indictment of the "data deprivation" corporate interests are inflicting on the social fabric.

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Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising
By Jean Kilbourne
(The Free Press, 1999)

Publisher's Note:   Through her lectures and award-winning documentaries (Killing Us Softly, Slim Hopes, Pack of Lies) Jean Kilbourne has revealed how the advertising industry influences our attitudes, values, and behavior. Now, in her first book, she warns that advertisers know more about us than we know about ourselves. It is this knowledge that enables them to promote an addictive mindset among consumers. Through hundreds of examples, "Deadly Persuasion" illustrates how advertisers trivialize human relationships by convincing us to bestow our love on products, rather than people. Advertisers deliberately offer girls and women, in particular, the promise of comfort, power, and gratification — feelings that many don't experience in their day-to-day lives. And in order to sell addictive products, advertisers target increasingly young audiences by promising them an outlet to express their feelings of rage and rebellion. Drawing on her extensive knowledge of psychology, the media, and women's issues, Kilbourne presents a shocking picture of the tactics advertisers use to nurture a harmful mindset. Readers will never look at ads — or themselves — the same way again.

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Speaking of Abortion: Television and Authority in the Lives of Women
By Andrea L. Press and Elizabeth R. Cole
(University of Chicago Press, 1999)

Publisher's note:   "I just always had this vision of me being ... well, Donna Reed, you know. (Laughter) Donna Reed, only I never had the pearls." This comment is one of the many recorded in Speaking of Abortion, a study of how women's views of television and the media relate to their personal stance on abortion. Over four years, Andrea Press and Elizabeth Cole watched television with women, visiting city houses, suburban subdivisions, modern condominiums, and public housing projects. They found that television depicts abortion as a problem for the poor and the working classes, and that viewers invariably referred to class when discussing abortion. Pro-life women from various classes were unified in their rejection of materialist values. Like the woman who identified with Donna Reed minus the pearls, this group strongly believed that a reduced family income was worth the sacrifice in order to stay home with children. Pro-life women also shared a general suspicion of the media as a source of information, turning to science instead to validate their biblically derived worldview. Pro-choice women's beliefs, however, were divided along class lines. Working-class women defended choice because they viewed themselves as a group whose interests are continually threatened by legal authorities. In contrast, middle-class women argued for individual rights and thought abortion necessary for those who aren't financially ready. Many middle-class pro-choice women, the authors argue, share the same point of view as displayed on television. Speaking of Abortion clarifies the rhetoric surrounding the abortion debate and is invaluable for allowing us to hear how ordinary women discuss one of America's most volatile issues.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: speaking of abortion • The classed discourse of abortion on prime-time television • Reconciling faith and fact: the pro-life perspective • Situating self and social authority: working-class pro-choice positions • The shifting context of justification for choice among the middle class • Another American dilemma: locating abortion on the political landscape.

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