Media and media criticism

“Whoever Reads Bourgeois Newspapers Becomes Blind and Deaf: Away with These Stultifying Bandages!” Photomontage by John Heartfield, February 9, 1930.

Our site’s slogans:

1) If the truth didn’t matter, there wouldn’t be so many lies.

2) Best advice: Do your own critique of articles on any subject that matters to you, comparing mainstream US and other media sources — alternative and foreign.

Suggestions for critical reading of the news

Compare mainstream and alternative sites, US and foreign mainstream news, with special attention to agenda-setting, framing and priming. The distortions that are most difficult to detect are due to omission and unquestioned assumptions, which are easier to spot when you compare different sources. Also pay attention to the choice of sources quoted and emphasized items (what’s in the headline? the lead? how far do you have to read to see something mentioned? How does the story end?).

You might also find this guide to bias helpful. A useful website for critical reading of the media is FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting).

A note on “bias” and “objectivity.” Take a look at NYU Journalism Prof. Jay Rosen’s blog, in particular his comments on “objectivity” and “he said, she said” journalism and Brent Cunningham’s longer “Rethinking Objective Journalism.”

 Some other sites useful for media critics

You can compare front pages of newspapers at Freedom Forum, which has front pages from the US and other countries. You can sometimes draw critical conclusions from comparing how editors in different countries select stories for their front page and frame them (expect political differences comparing US and other papers, especially on any international relations story).

Nexis Uni, JStor and Academic Search Complete, Newspaper Source  (Ebsco Host) and other article databases are available through large public and university libraries, including Flaxman (for SAIC students, faculty and staff) and Chicago Public Library. JStor is the Flaxman article database which is best for scholarly journal articles on media.

Media Monopoly: Who owns the media?

Many media critics believe ownership concentration is fundamental to shaping media content. The classic text is Ben Bagdikian’s Media Monopoly, in its 6th edition — each successive edition looks like an understatement of the problem a few years later. Other prominent critics of ownership are Robert McChesney, a founder of the media reform movement which has challenged monopolization, and, of course, Noam Chomsky.

You can find a detailed online account at “Who Owns What?” at The Columbia Journalism Review and another at Free Press. Be sure to check how recently the data has been updated — there are frequent ownership changes through mergers and acquisitions.

“We did not expect the Soviet Communist Party’s newspaper Pravda to tell the truth about the Communist Party, why should we expect the corporate press to tell the truth about corporate power?”—Media Lens

News organizations which define “orthodoxy” in the US

A refugee from the downsizing of mainstream news organizations
Pro publica. Excellent investigative reporting by a non-profit. Many of their stories are published in major dailies.

Especially recommended

These are sites I find especially useful — obviously, a personal selection reflecting my interests and political views. If you want a quick contrast in the “framing” of major stories, compare US mainstream media such as CNN and the NY Times with foreign media such as al-Jazeera, BBC News or The Guardian, and alternative US sources such as Democracy Now.

Progressive alternative Media in the US

    • Democracy Now    Explanation and background on stories important to progressives, featuring in-depth interviews with prominent journalists, scholars, and activists. You can read transcripts of the programs, watch or listen online or download podcasts. Carried by many cable and satellite providers, with an app on Roku and smart TVs.
    • The Nation  The most influential news and opinion publication left of center.
    • In These Times. Covers the progressive gamut, exceptional labor reporting.
    • The Intercept. Oppositional journalism, distinguished coverage of the US at war and government spying, but also a wide range of issues.
    • Jacobin. One of the most influential journals on the left, articles on the wide range of issues that matter to progressives from a democratic socialist and working-class perspective.
    • The American Prospect. In-depth articles on social policy and legislation from a progressive perspective. Robert Reich is one of the founders.
    • Tom Dispatch. Tom Engelhart’s “antidote to the mainstream media.” In-depth essays, especially good on US at war.  Frequent contributions from art critic and activist Rebecca Solnit.
    • These three sites have news and commentary from mainstream and alternative media of interest to progressives, as well as original content. Truthout, Common Dreams, and Portside (“material of interest to people on the left”).

Some foreign sources

  • BBC News. Largest international news organization, invaluable foreign reporting.
  • The Guardian (UK; good US coverage)  Don’t miss the outrageous and over-the-top savage imagery in their daily comment cartoons.  
  • Financial Times. (UK; some good US coverage) Also available in your library’s Nexis Uni, but not the most recent articles. Excellent reporting on international economics and politics, especially China.
  • Al Jazeera.  Competitor to CNN International and BBC World News, rich source of reporting and commentary from the Global South that challenges Western perspectives, especially useful in understanding the Middle East and Asia. Its offices bombed by the US in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, by Israel in its latest Gaza offensive. Founded by the Qatari government, now a private corporation, still partly funded by Qatar.
  • Left-wing British news and commentary in Novara Media, which covers US and global politics as well as British, and also has podcasts and video; and The Canary.  Good antidotes to the BBC, and, even more, The Guardian (especially if you thought progressives didn’t need an antidote to it).
  • Xinhua. China’s (and the world’s) largest news agency and People’s Daily Online,   designated as foreign agents by the US State Dept.

And, just because the US government labels them “foreign agents” and especially doesn’t want you to look here:

  • RT formerly Russia Today, nominally independent, funded by the Russian government.
    Press TV: Iranian international news network, 24-hours in English.

Specialized subject area resources

  • Electronic Intifada is a major source of news and comment on Palestine — and an SAIC alum is one of the editors. I also recommend Mondoweiss (on “the war of ideas in the Middle East”), Jewish Currents and the blog by its editor Peter Beinart.
  • Juan Cole’s Informed Comment,   especially on the Middle East and US foreign policy, by a leading Middle East scholar. Also look at Jadaliyyah, the ezine from the Arab Studies Institute — huge content on the Middle East by scholars, grad students, writers and activists.
  • Foreign Policy in Focus http://www.fpif.org/
  • Foreign Policy, which offers useful daily updates. News and analysis of international relations (e.g., Stephen Walt).
  • Foreign Affairs, journal of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Find some useful articles here

Often Useful Public Affairs radio and podcasts

These are all available through the iTunes store; you can download most but not all easily from their own websites.

  • Democracy Now.
  • BBC Newshour
  • NY Times podcasts, in particular, The Daily, The Ezra Klein Show, Kara Swisher’s Sway. (Klein’s and Swisher’s have transcripts.) And more.
  • Start Making Sense. Historian and Nation contributing editor Jon Wiener’s interview program sponsored by The Nation, especially good on providing historical context to current events. Lives up to its promise of  “political talk without the boring parts.”
  • “Time to Say Goodbye.” Chatty format for informative and insightful analysis on issues of interest to progressives, with special attention to Asia and Asian-Americans. Jay Caspian Kang and E. Tammy Kim, both of whom write for the Times, and historian Andy B. Liu. Smart movement perspectives. Everything they talk about, from racism to the NBA, keeps me fascinated. Vulture interview here.
  • Vox media podcasts. 
  • Behind the News. Doug Henwood’s in-depth interviews on politics and economics. Henwood also published Left Business Observer, RIP, but articles online here.
  • Talking Politics.  David Runciman and Helen Thompson, both U of Cambridge professors of politics, the first a regular contributor to The London Review of Books and the second to The New Statesman. Runciman also hosts: Talking Politics: History of Ideas.

Not so political but recommended:

  • In Our Time, a BBC 4 show on history and the history of ideas.
  • Thinking Allowed, another BBC 4 show, this one “the latest research into how society works.”

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