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Afghanistan: Wars And Democracy Running wars via modern media is difficult to balance with democracy, says Afghanistan expert Michael Griffin in this interview with Danny Schechter. |
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Expect Censorship? John MacArthur, publisher of Harper's Magazine and author of the book "Second Front," about censorship in the Gulf War, weighs in. |
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Distribution Or Death  With streaming video!
When an "indie" giant with ties to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. pulled
music for Danny Hoch's new film, he lost the ability to distribute art
aimed at all hip-hop fans and "the folks that loved American Beauty."
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The Birth Of Spin According PR historian Stuart Ewen, the origins of modern public relations lie in the radical anticorporate movements of the early 1900s. David Barsamian interviews Ewen about PR's "illegitimate" history. |
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Democracy In Danger To John Stauber, longtime PR industry watcher and critic, public relations has led to the "overall management of public opinion and policy by the few." He discusses why PR puts democracy at risk in this interview with Derrick Jensen. Plus: A PR pro responds |
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Rocket Science A professor of communications, Robert McChesney is an academic rarity: an outspoken critic of corporate media who has earned his stripes as a working journalist. In 1979, he co-founded The Rocket, a Seattle-based rock magazine that still hasn't run out of fuel. "What I learned is that if you have people who are really dedicated and work hard, there's a lot you can do," says McChesney. "Ultimately, the core problems we face in the media ... are social problems. They require social solutions. We should be organizing and working together to change institutions." In an interview with David Barsamian, host of "Alternative Radio," McChesney talks about public broadcasting, private power and how corporate media subvert democracy. |
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Death Threats And Free Press In a region where newspapers are seized, media outlets shuttered and journalists murdered, Veran Matic, Chairman of the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) in Yugoslavia and founder of Belgrade's internationally renowned Radio B92, is Serbia's foremost media freedom fighter. MediaChannel interviewed Matic about the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister's recent violent threats against independent journalists. Matic warns: "Now it is literally impossible to predict whether those threatened will remain alive by the time this interview appears in public." |
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Stormy Weather "The media cannot ignore [environmental activist] Lois Gibbs shrieking at the President of the United States," says investigative journalist Mark Dowie. So why the media blackout on hard-hitting environmental reporting?, he asks. In the last of our interviews from Wild Duck Review, Dowie talks about that endangered species, the environmental journalist. |
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Voice In The Neon Wilderness A withering critic of the "culture industry," Thomas Frank updates the media criticism of Frankfurt Marxists like Theodor Adorno for the age of Benetton and the Body Shop. In conversation with Wild Duck editor Casey walker, Frank mourns the passing of labor journalism and applauds Time's coverage of corporate welfare ("They're really handing out the punishment"). |
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(Photo:Cecilia Schmidt) |
Putting The Public Back In Journalism Commercial media outlets, faced with shifting and declining audiences, frequently cite their desire to "put the public" back into the media equation. But how to get from here to there remains a puzzle. The answer may lie in "public journalism," a 10-year series of experiments seeking to address this problem. Media Channel Senior Editor Larry Bensky interviews one of the movement's most vocal advocates, New York University professor Jay Rosen, who looks at the effort in his new book, "What Are Journalists For?" |
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Waiting For The Barbarians Harper's editor Lewis Lapham thinks TV is "a planet of weeds." That we're dying a slow death of cultural asphyxiation at the hands of "Entertainment Tonight" and "ABC News." That the Shakespeare and Montaigne of electronic media may be a century away: "The vocabulary at the moment is extremely crude." Is he trying to make us think, or just butting heads? |
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A Genealogy Of The Powers That Be Alex S. Jones and Susan E. Tifft on the family behind The New York Times. |
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