In Depth

Media issues in the news: context, balance, background.

 U.S. MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
Concerned about media concentration? Know what to do about it? As the U.S. government considers eliminating remaining media ownership limits, this in-depth guide explains the issues and gives you the tools to get involved.
ZIMBABWE CENSORSHIP
February 28, 2001
One way to keep power is to get rid of your critics, as President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is well aware. That strategy has put journalists, both local and foreign, in jeopardy. A special report.
RUSSIAN PRESS
April 25, 2001
15 years after the Chernobyl accident, the Russian press is facing its own meltdown. President Putin is wielding buyouts, prosecution and police force to gain control of independent media. MediaChannel affiliates unravel the mess.
AIDS
November 29, 2000
How can the media improve coverage of the medical, social and economic crisis of AIDS? MediaChannel presents a special report for World AIDS Day, December 1. Plus: critiques, comments and campaigns from journalists and AIDS advocates around the world.
(Sean Gallup/Newsmakers)
CZECH MEDIA
Jan 10, 2001
It was the largest demo in Prague since the Velvet Revolution. But this time the target was a TV station. Is it just an ongoing political battle or is it a media reform movement taking shape? A special report from MediaChannel affiliates.
SUMMER OLYMPICS
Globally, viewers are turning down the volume on the coverage from Sydney in order to see what goes on beyond the stylized calisthenics. Issues of culture and politics simmer in the shadows of the stadiums.
U.S. CANDIDATES
November 1, 2000
MediaChannel affiliates tell you where the presidential candidates stand on media policy, as mega-mergers and the digital revolution raise new questions about the future of communication and information.
MOON AND UPI
September 13, 2000
Will United Press International be reborn as an outlet for Rev. Sun Myung Moon's theological politics? This special report examines Moon's dubious organization, his archconservative media empire and the current state of a once great news wire.
D.C. PROTESTS
April 19, 2000
No protest these days is complete without microphones and laptops. In Seattle the "indie media" defined themselves for a new generation, and they were back again in Washington, D.C., striving to affect the way the news was told. But, as scholar Robin Andersen finds, the TV reports missed many of the stories the Indie press valued. The ruckus for global justice in D.C. spawned two very different types of coverage. MediaChannel affiliates discuss.
Illustration by Latuff.
SERBIAN MEDIA
February 22, 2000
The bombing has stopped, but the media war goes on. President Slobodan Milosevic's regime has declared open season on the independent press, from draconian information laws to violence against media outlets and attacks on journalists. MediaChannel affiliates have been monitoring the situation closely; we bring you the best of their reports.
Photo by David McNew/Newsmakers
OSCARS' SHADOW
March 29, 2000
Even as cinema becomes more technologically advanced, audiences too often feel as if they've seen this movie before. The lack of diversity in story lines is only outdone by the lack of diversity in front of, and behind, the camera. While the Academy's marketers seek to flood the world's airwaves with their gold-plated Oscars show, the film industry itself consistently misrepresents and ignores the world's people in its products. MediaChannel affiliates challenge Hollywood's cultural imperialism and explore the history of a business strategy that is, ultimately, racist.
Walter Cronkite and CBS crew in Vietnam, 1968
Courtesy Still Pictures Branch/National Archives
COVERING VIETNAM
May 3, 2000
Vietnam makes the news once again — albeit briefly — as media organizations mark the 25th anniversary of the fall or liberation of Saigon, depending on your view. While that country still fights a virtually invisible battle to rebuild, the role of the media in covering and mis-covering the war remains hotly debated. As in so many other Vietnam War issues, supporters of the war cite one set of lessons, critics another. MediaChannel affiliates discuss this first media war in this special report edited by MediaChannel "War & Peace" editor and Vietnam veteran Tom Nusbaumer.
Photo by Brian Snyder/Newsmakers
ELECTION COVERAGE
February 9, 2000
The American public experiences the presidential campaign through the lens of the mass media. But is this lens a crystal-clear window on the political world, or a warped prism, refracting biases and distortions? Through polls, studies, reports, and commentaries, MediaChannel affiliates look at the interplay between politics, the public, and the press. This In Depth section also features the first in a series of special reports from Media Tenor on how the U.S. press is covering campaign 2000.
(Photo by Chris Hondros -Newsmakers)
AOL TIME WARNER
January 26, 2000
News, analysis and commentary on the biggest merger of all time. Critics air their concerns, advocates push for federal action, experts explain the issues. Some commentators think they're all worked up over nothing.
Y2K COVERAGE
December 12, 1999
Before Y2K panic turned out to be the global crisis that wasn't, media watchers critiqued coverage of the computer glitch as short on facts and long on drama—although they disagreed if it was the initial hysteria or the subsequent, what-me-worry calm that should have been our biggest concern.
Crowd control:
WTO police action
as seen on KING-TV.
WTO UPDATE
December 16, 1999
What lessons should mainstream news and alternative journalists take away from Seattle about corporate outlets vs. independent voices, "objective" coverage vs. advocacy, old media vs. new media? The Media Channel offers the best of the morning-after commentary on the media and the WTO protests.
WTO COVERAGE
December 3, 1999
The December, 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization brought together independent media outlets from around the world in a coordinated, Internet-based network. Media critics found bias and lack of depth in the mainstream media's coverage of the event and the issues behind it. The alternative media reported the news that didn't make the news.

AS THE MEDIA WATCH THE WORLD, WE WATCH THE MEDIA.