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Critical Clicks:
New and important features from the MediaChannel network
latest entry: February 5, 2003
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The Nike Case Of Corporate Free Speech: Online Resources
Should corporations be protected by free speech laws? In Kasky v. Nike, the sportswear giant defends the accusations of dishonest PR with this argument.. A group dedicated to "restoring citizen authority over corporations" offers an overview of the case and many links.
From ReclaimDemocracy
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MediaCulture: News And Views Of U.S. Media
•U.S. Media Distort Coverage Of Columbian Conflict
•Eminem: The Voice Of Anglo Angst
•Cable's Desperate Race For Ratings Leaves The Public Behind
From Alternet
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Media Tenor's International News Monitor
Latest Reports:
*World News AIDS Coverage Marked By Neglect And Racism
*Brazil's Lula Is Most Prominent Figure At The World Economic Forum
From Media Tenor
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The Challenges Of Disaster Coverage
How can Nigerian media and must improve their response to disaster and emergencies, avoiding sensationalism, censorship and bias? And can they shift from the over-dominance of political news to attend to critical social issues like youth unemployment? A national workshop looked for solutions. For more regional coverage, visit the new preview of MediaChannel:Africa.
From allAfrica.com
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Advertising The SUV-Terror Connection
Outraged by anti-drug ads linking youth drug use to funding terrorists, advocates for more fuel-efficient cars have launched their own parody ads. Will these TV spots on the connections between gas-guzzling SUVs and mideast terrorism be accepted by your local TV station? From The Detroit Project
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Music And Protest, Hip Hop And Justice
This special music issue features interviews with crusading artist-activists, an expose of the commercializing consolidation of the music industry and explorations of the pain and politics of the hip hop generation. From The Nation
Plus:
• Mother Jones interviews guitarist Tom Morello.
• "Civil Rights Are Dead, Long Live Hip Hop"
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The Fantasy Of Young Journalists
Sixty-seven journalists under 30 years old were brought together to meet in bars and restaurants around the U.S. to imagine and describe their "Dream Newspaper." Columbia Journalism Review did the project "as part of the continuing discussion of (or fixation on) what young people want to read and why."
From Columbia Journalism Review
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Venezuela's Media Mindshock
The TV networks run by those determined to take down President Chavez are full of content that's closer to public brainwashing than journalism, says this report from Maracaibo.
From The Gully Online Magazine
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Solutions For Copyright And Free Expression
The "intellectual property" system in the United States is broken, argues this new report by the Free Expression Policy Project. They recommend specific policy changes and public domain initiatives to protect creativity, art and culture against excessive copyright restrictions.
From National Coalition Against Censorship
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U.S. TV News Blames Africans For Famine
The massive Southern African famine that threatens millions is barely covered by U.S. TV news. What's worse, warns Zeynep Toufe, is that the role of international policies, global warning and finance systems are never mentioned, instead African nations are blamed for the crisis.
From FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting)
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Media Year In Review
• Danny Schechter's year-end News Dissector weblog.
• I Want Media's top media stories of the year, and many more roundups of media news, 2002.
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Artists And Activists Face Web Eviction
Internet Service Provider The Thing has hosted artist and activist sites for 10 years. But after two groups used parody Websites and an electronic sit-in in protest against powerful corporations, the host for hundreds of sites could be shut down. A collection of articles.
From Newsgrist - where spin is art
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The Dangers Of Wildlife Documentaries
Nature documentaries pretend humans don't exist. So for 50 years they've covered up environmental destruction and supported ethnic cleansing in Africa. George Monbiot explains.
From Guardian Unlimited
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Education Is Not Enough To Transform Media
Worldwide movements for critical media education have increased people's understanding of the "perils and promise" of media — but have they actually helped citizens and communities take action? Asian media activists and educators are confronting the limitations of critical media education and moving beyond them with grassroots programs to democratize and reform the media.
From World Assoc. for Christian Comm.
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Minority Ownership of Major Media Going Extinct
Viacom's decision to cut news programming at Black Entertainment Television (BET) is just another example of white-owned conglomerates controlling the channels that target people of color. Activism is needed now, argues Jeff Chester, to demand regulations that stop media concentration and that support the growth of independent outlets. Plus: Minorities Have Little Media Ownership and Even Less Control.
From AlterNet/Independent Media Institute
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Can Corporations Stop Criticism With Copyright Law?
When Dow Chemical tried to stop a parody Website that focused on the company's responsibility for India's Bhopal disaster, they used the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Corporations are arguing that any use of their trademarks, even for criticism and satire, are copyright violations.
Also see: News Tracker-Copyright And The Future Of Digital Media.
From Index on Censorship
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TV Ads And Fear Of Queer
Protests convinced the UK's advertising regulator to pull Yahoo!'s ad featuring a leering man in a purple hat but predatory gay men and male rape are still a common comedy theme in TV ads. Commercial Closet challenges the ad industry to do better -- and hosts "the world's largest collection of gay advertising."
From Commercial Closet Association
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How To Make Media That Respect Kids
Far too often, media treat children only as targets for toy ads or as sensationalized victims. Journalists and producers should bookmark this excellent Website from UNICEF featuring guidelines, best practices, cases studies and useful resources for making media that respect and support children.
From United Nations Children's Fund
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White Journalists Have "Personal Backgrounds," Too
Journalist and Native American Kara Briggs points out the logical flaws in a recently lauded book that bashed newsroom diversity programs. She notes that "all journalists have something in our politics, religion or economic class that could at any day be used to unfairly slant some aspect of the news, or could be used to report a better story."
From Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education
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India's Online Gays: Trapped In A High-Tech Closet?
"In a country where gay sex is still criminal, India's Internet gays have revolutionized homosexual life. But many gay activists wonder if Web-based chat rooms and social clubs postpone the difficult task of coming out publicly and politically in the nation." Sandip Roy reports for Pacific News Service.
From Globalvision News Network
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Consumerism: Emotions, Cultural Identity And The Body As A Brand
Brands build emotional attachments between the purchaser and the product. With economies now dominated by branded goods, our bodies are increasingly defined by the products we consume.
From Although.nu
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A Handbook For Afghan Journalists: Reporting The Future (PDF)
How will Afghanistan's journalists represent the challenges facing their country to themselves and the rest of the world? This excellent online
handbook provides practical guidance and exercises and introduces many concepts and ideas new to Afghan reporters. (Requires Acrobat Reader)
From Institute for War and Peace Reporting
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Women And Images-Pageant Ignites Controversy
Despite the sentencing of Amina Lawal to death by stoning for adultery, most contestants decided to attend this year's Miss World contest in Nigeria. The subsequent riots and deaths over a controversial article linking prophet Mohammed to the pageant reaffirm cultural divisions and revive important questions concerning feminism. For more regional coverage, visit the new preview of MediaChannel:Africa. From Common Dreams
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Fighting AIDS By Making Media
December 1 is World AIDS Day, designed to capture
fickle media attention for the pandemic that continues to consume millions, transforming societies worldwide. With 40 million people currently infected, the struggle to educate for health and advocate for resources takes form through TV shows and posters, hip hop, Web art, radio and every possible medium.
* MediaChannel Special Report: The Epidemic And The
Media
* MTV and OneWorld Radio team up for AIDS radio
programs you can listen to,
download and rebroadcast.
* From AIDSChannel: Communicating about HIV/AIDS
requires the right message and the right medium for
each culture and community.
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Women Improve News, But News Is Losing Women
"A new study indicates that newspapers with more
women in top-level jobs provide the type of coverage
readers say they want: local, people-centered news
coverage." But thanks to sexism in the newsroom,
women in journalism "are looking for a way out, not up."
Also see: MediaChannel Issue Guide: Women's Media
From Women's Enews
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Communication Rights And Civil Society
Public-interest advocates from around the world are working to define their vision for policy, community media, corporate media ownership and more as they prepare for the "World Summit on the Information Society" in Geneva in 2003 and Tunis 2005. Most of the impact of UN Summits is actually in organizing that takes place well before the big gathering so get caught up with the issues with this edition of Media Development Journal.
From World Assoc. for Christian Comm.
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U.S. Radio Faces The People
• Young Activists Hold Hip-Hop Station To Account
• Report: Radio Deregulation Has Not Served Citizens, Musicians
• What You Can Do About Clear Channel, The Monster That Ate Radio
From Youth Media Council, Corp Watch, and Future of Music Coalition via Center for Digital Democracy.
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older picks
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AS THE MEDIA WATCH THE WORLD, WE WATCH THE
MEDIA.
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