Week 2 (Sept 2)

Democracy and the Political Economy of Media

For today:

• Read – Robert McChesney, “Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times,” in The Political Economy of Media (Monthly Review Press, 2008), pp. 425-443.
• In class – Screening of Robert McChesney and John Nichols on ‘The Death and Life of American Journalism,’ Democracy Now! 2010.
• KEYWORDS – Political Economy, Corporation, Conglomeration, Oligopoly, Free Market, Democracy

For further reading and research:

• The Illusion of Choice – an amazing infographic on media ownership in the U.S.
• McCombs and Estrada, “News Media and the Pictures in our Heads.”
• Robert McChesney on C-SPAN discussing the ‘Digital Disconnect‘ between capitalism and a democratized Internet.
• Senator Bernie Sanders on ‘Why Big Media Shouldn’t Get Bigger‘, via Moyers & Company.