Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy (Open Media Pamphlet Series)

The tremendous growth of the so-called information superhighway has opened countless new channels for media, but only a very few opportunities for control of these channels. In this book, the author of Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy traces the emergence of the global media monopoly, describes what the main players are up to, and details how the Internet is being brought under their control.

If we believe that an informed populace is an integral part of a successfully active democracy, writes Robert W. McChesney, then the commercial basis of U.S. media, in which a substantial number of media outlets are owned by a handful of corporations, is definite cause for concern. When corporations control the flow of information, he suggests, they will inevitably do so in a way that promotes their own interests over those of the citizenry. From an analysis of the corporate influence over the 1934 Communications Act to a discussion of how media convergence might kill off hope of the Internet bringing about a revolution, he debunks the myth of an objective, liberal media and emphasizes the belief that issues of media ownership should be treated as matters of public policy rather than strictly business.