Media Reform Resources
Media Reform Resources: Check out Bob McChesney's Media Matters radio show through his website, http://www.will.uiuc.edu/am/mediamatters/default.htm . The show features McChesney in conversation with guests discussing issues pertaining to media. Broadcast out of Champaign/Urbana's NPR station, WILL, 1-2 p.m. CST Sundays, the shows can be heard online live or through the archives.
McChesney is a research professor in the Institute of Communications Research and the Graduate School of Information and Library Science at the University of Illinois, and is one of the co-founders of FreePress.net (another incredible media reform site). His past guests include Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, Aaron Glantz, Chalmers Johnson, Robert Jensen and Mark Crispin Miller.
The show's mission is to help people understand the role of media in their lives, and in pursuit of that mission,McChesney produces riveting radio. Listeners may call in with comments or questions. If you haven't heard his show, I highly urge you to check out the archives. Indeed I recommend listening to virtually all of the past shows but one of my favorites is the one Sept. 18, 2005. His guest is FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) founder Jeff Cohen. Cohen's analysis of NPR and mainstream, corporate media is a must-hear.
The FreePress.net is a nonpartisan organization working to involve the public in media policymaking and to craft policies for more democratic media. FreePress produces Media Minutes and a tool kit for media activism. The tool kit's DVD is excellent and is designed for home parties on media. Its website has archived the 2005 National Conference for Media Reform held in St. Louis. Most of the conference archives are fascinating but in particular I recommend the sessions with Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, Mark Cooper and Janine Jackson. The closing session featured Bill Moyers whose rousing speech was rebroadcast on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now.
Another excellent source of media analysis is MediaChannel.org, described as a media issues supersite, featuring criticism, breaking news, and investigative reporting from hundreds of organizations worldwide. As the media watch the world, we watch the media. Four separate e-newsletters are available: "Media Savvy News" - a daily roundup of media news headlines; "News Dissector Daily Weblog" - Danny Schechter's daily dissections of the stories behind the headlines; "Media is a Plural" - Roy O'Conner's contrarian and oftentimes hilarious blog about all things media; and "Media for Democractic Action Alerts" - a citizens's movement to hold big media's election coverage to a more democratic standard.
Books addressing media issues: The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century, Robert McChesney; The Future of the Media: Resistance and Reform in the 21st Century ed. Robert McChesney, Russell Newman and Ben Scott; War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death,Norman Solomon.
Listen/Read/Watch/Contribute to local sources of independent media:
Pacifica's Houston Radio for Peace, KPFT 90.1 FM and in Galveston, 89.5 FM;
Houston Indy Media at www.houston.indymedia.org;
Houston Media Source, Public Access Cable TV (on Comcast, Channel 17).