Understanding the media filter

In Keeping the Media Safe for Big Business, Media Lens adds to the discussion surrounding the way the media is run to benefit some and ignore/attack/trivialise others. Also addressed is how journalists become a part of this system, often without their own knowledge.
The debate builds on the works of Chomsky and Hermann in their landmark book, first published in 1988, Manufacturing Consent. The work aims to show the media is controlled in western democracies, without the need for any sinister conspiracy theories.

Goodman: "Why we were falsely arrested"

Democracy NOW! host Amy Goodman has used her latest TruthDig column to address the wider issues behind her wrongful arrest at protests at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota earlier this week.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080903_why_we_were_falsely_arrested/

Social Movements and the Rebuilding of the Media

William K. Carroll and Robert A. Hackett were responsible for writing "Remaking Media: The Struggle to Democratize Public Communications" (2006). The book discusses the need for democratic media and stresses the central role social movements must play to promote media reform, as an important demand for both their short term and long term goals. It also discusses the ways community media, as it is currently understood, can become more democratic and act as a special aid towards media reform demands.

A talk on some of the basic premises of the book can be read at:
http://stc.uws.edu.au/gmjau/vol1_2008/hackett_carrol.html

Find cheap prices on this book at BooksPrice
http://www.booksprice.com

Moyers on how Corporate Media Kills Democracy

Bill Moyers addressed the National Conference for Media Reform last month in Minneapolis. In his speech, he told how the current media landscape is creating false consent in society and therefore helping to destroy democracy and give more power to the corporate elites, highlighting the current struggles for net neutrality against ComCast in the states.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3790/is_the_fourth_estate_a_fifth_column/

Bill Moyers hosts the Bill Moyers Journal on PBS and is the President of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy.

Geelong Addy Tries To Reinvigorate Dying Format...One Faultering Inch at a time!

Under headlines of "Readers Sack the Editor", one could be confused into believing that media democracy is just around the corner. But in a piece of Public Relations gold, the Geelong Advertiser has been able to gain mass acclaim, by not doing much at all.

The paper has started to allow its readers to vote on front page stories from a list decided on by the paper's editorial committee. It is hoped the campaign can help excite readers into buying the local paper because it would feature the stories they want to read about on the front page. This is an extremely corporate friendly and ultimately shallow view of how to gain reader empowerment, especially in this age of web 2.0.

Over recent months, the Advertiser has embarked on what it describes as a campaign focus. The key plank to think has been the "Just Think" Campaign against Violent crime. One of the key demands of this campaign has been to get more police on Geelong's streets. This has been a failed strategy. This is because in an effort to get more cops on the street, the Addy has forgotten to address the causes of a lot of crime and violent crime. Central to this are the social factors that surround us all. Geelong is home to some of the most underprivileged people in the state. Until these social problems are addressed, all the cops in the world won't stop violence. They will only heighten tension and make the broader community feel like we are living in some kind of police state.

So one must ask who is the Geelong Addy really serving? Are they really interested in media democracy? It seems that all they are serving is their own bottom lines while doing as little as possible to change their top-down approach to journalism. Let me know what you think.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24031377-13480,00.html
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2008/07/15/16082_news_pf.html