Rich Media, Poor Democracy

Long seen as a bedrock of democracy and freedom, the media have in fact become a significant antidemocratic force in the United States and around the world. The corporate media explosion has set off a corresponding implosion of public life that characterizes a perilous present—and threatens our future.

Robert McChesney's acclaimed analysis of corporate media and its undermining of democracy challenges the myths and assumptions that, at bedrock, serve corporate elites and their political allies. McChesney chronicles the waves of media mergers and acquisitions in the late 1990s. He reviews the corrupt and secretive enactment of public policies surrounding the Internet, digital television, and public broadcasting and argues that the major beneficiaries of the so-called Information Age are wealthy investors, advertisers, and a handful of enormous media, computer, and telecommunications corporations. As McChesney shows, powerful myths limit our ability to grasp the real nature and logic of the media system. To guarantee our freedoms, citizens must organize politically to restructure the media in ways that secure the independence of a free press and reaffirm its connection to democracy.