Free the Media
by Bob
Russell
The "local" TV news broadcast opens with "tonight's stories . . .".
What stories are being told? Who is telling the stories? Is there any real "local" media left? Who owns it? Who controls it?
Stories are one of the most basic means that information about communities is communicated within itself. Stories that tell the community's history, its commonly held ethical and moral beliefs, and the current events that are both personal and civic. For a democracy to function for the benefit of the many, a sharing of information is critical. To this end we need a media that is not a cheerleader for capitalist consumerism and the servant of the elite wealth-based power structure. We need some media components that are noncommercial and nonprofit--media that can support the need for people to communicate their stories, politics and values within their community. This is not what we have today.
The media coverage of the WTO is an example of how the corporate media reports on sensationalism, not on analysis that would be useful for citizens in a true democracy -- a democracy ruled by the many, not the few wealthy power elites.
What is a functioning democracy? Is the United States one? Are you participating in one at the local governmental level? These are questions that need asking and answering in today's world. A world where the majority of media is controled by a few very large multinational corporations.
The Internet was seen as a new avenue for citizens to have access to media and be producers of media, but this is rapidly diminishing with mergers like the recent one between AOL and Time Warner. "This is the last nail in the coffin for anyone who believed that the Internet is the last stronghold of media competition", says Robert McChesney, a professor of Communication at the University of Illinois and author of Rich Media, Poor Democracy.
We need a political challenge to the control of media by large multinational corporations. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 passed by Congress was a disgrace to the citizens of this country. It was a multi-billion dollar give away of public media resources with nothing in return and it removed the constraints on monopoly ownership in large media markets. The revision of this act needs to be on the agenda of the progressive political movements in this country. Has anyone heard Bush or Gore, the accepted corporate appointees, mention media issues? Don't hold your breath.
If you want some background on this issue, a good place to start is by reading Robert McChesney's book, Rich Media, Poor Democracy. Buy it from your local bookstore. You can read comments here.
Rich Media, Poor Democracy
by Robert McChesney
University of Illinois Press
Urbana and Chicago
1999, 427 pgs.
ISBN 0-252-02448-6
Buy the book from University of Illinois Press
http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f99/mcchesney.html