Capsule reviews of new books, films and magazines on media, culture, and democracy. Send review copies to Reclaim the Media, 927 22nd Ave, Seattle WA 98122.

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DEC 05

Radical Mass Media Criticism: A Cultural Genealogy
ed. by David Berry and John Theobald [Black Rose]

In this collection of academic essays, editors Berry and Theobald amass a broad, if incomplete, look at a century of philosophically-based media criticism in Europe, North America and--in one essay--Latin America. Most of the essays focus primarily on the work of a single theorist or intellectual school. Subjects include Jurgen Habermas, Karl Kraus, the Frankfurt School and Marshall McLuhan, and these essays offer highly valuable information on these thinkers' work, highlighting themes from their work in relation media-criticism perspective. The main exception to the single-author focus is one the volume's high points. Robert McChesney and Ben Scott's insightful review of 20th century US media criticism argues that, far from being a recent development or marginal thread, radical criticism of mass media has been a defining factor of US culture throughout the last hundred years. Also noteworthy is Cynthia Carter's fine essay on bell hooks' cultural criticism. Unfortunately, the hooks article is nearly alone in focusing on the critical insights either of women or people of color. Another significant absence is media criticism emerging from the radical social movements of the late 1960s. Despite these flaws, the volume--rich with bibliographic references--offers access to a useful and often obscure portion of our critical intellectual history. -jl

Filtering the News: Essays on Herman and Chomsky's Propaganda Model
ed. by Jeffery Klaehn [Black Rose]

This interesting but less than satisfying collection of essays centers around Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman's vastly important contribution to contemporary media analysis, the 'propaganda model.' The collection is bookended by Klaehn's own essays describing, promoting and defending it against its critics. Other essays of varying quality are intended to serve as specimen applications of the model, although some--including Robert Jensen's insightful and entertaining take on the post-9/11 Dan Rather--might better be described as 'loosely inspired by' Chomsky and Herman's work. -jl

The Death of Media and the Fight to Save Democracy
by Danny Schechter [Melville House]

Readers looking for a brief introduction to problems with mainstream media and opportunities for media activism, will find this small book appealing for several reasons. MediaChannel founder and documentary filmmaker Schechter helpfully drops plenty of names and citations in the best possible way--situating his own observations within an ongoing history of citizen media critics, and within a diverse contemporary network of creative activists. These range from the Media Justice movement to experiments in new journalism, such as political weblogs and South Korea's OhMyNews. Schechter does well by including a chapter examining why Americans are so dismally uninterested in world affairs, but falters a bit in his obligatory "take action" section, by calling only for citizens to fall in line behind the policy goals of DC-based national media reform groups, rather than also organizing around media issues in grassroots local and regional settings. -jl

NOV 05

The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American Media
by Lila Rajiva [Monthly Review]

Independent journalist Rajiva's first book offers a detailed, systematic attempt to understand how establishment media coverage of the Iraq war has dulled, rather than sharpened, American public conscience. The book is a model of in-depth, citizen media analysis, not only skewering craven propagandists like Hannity and Limbaugh, but also revealing the shameful and often racist double standards which have undergirded mainstream war coverage. Going deeper, Rajiva distinguishes and interrrogates many different modes our media has used to shape responses to violence and torture:scandal, melodrama, legalism, pornography, and archetypal mythology. Ultimately, she rejects all of them as incapable of serving democratic rather than corporate/totalitarian values; in her last pages she expresses her hope for the continued expansion of critical citizen journalism as an alternative. -jl

Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution
Hugo Chavez interviewed by Marta Harnecker [Monthly Review]

In this fascinating look into Venezuela's social revolution-in-progress, Chilean academic Harnecker presents the voice and views of Hugo Chavez in the form of long, edited interviews. Of interest to media scholars and activists will be Chavez's discussion of the problems of developing communications strategies and articulating communications rights policies in a media environment dominated by corporate-controlled media. While the book does contain interesting accounts of Chavez' own popular TV program Alo Presidente, the interviews unfortunately predate Chavez' conception and development of the South American counter-hegemonic satellite network Telesur. -jl

Creating Anarchy
by Ron Sakolsky [Fifth Estate]

In this new collection, Sakolsky pulls together essays and short pieces from many areas he has previously explored as a scholar and editor: the intersection of radical art and radical politics, the history of American surrealism, and most importantly, charting escape routes from what he calls the "miserablism of our currently mediated lives." Among several pieces dealing with independent media and the creative arts, the book includes Sakolsky's short take on media and democracy (with which he opened the original Reclaim the Media conference in Sept. 2002), and his blistering critique of the movement supporting legal Low Power FM radio. -jl

OCT 05

Feet to the Fire: The Media After 9/11
ed. by Kristin Borjesson [Prometheus]

Kristina Borjesson's impressively vast volume of interviews with journalists has already taken its place as an indispensable source for understanding American news coverage of war and politics since Sept. 11, 2001. Borjesson's questions probe how government sources were able to use the disaster and its aftermath of fear to minimalize journalists' watchdog role while encouraging them to adopt pro-administration frames and perspectives, and to value access above independence. Borjesson's interviewees are mainstream broadcast and (mostly) print journalists, from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman to Knight-Ridder correspondents Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landray. The book is rich with reporters' anecdotes on the challenges of reporting in the battlegrounds of Iraq and the corridors of the State Department; an excellent and compelling read for aspiring journalists, media critics or anyone interested in the current state of American democracy. -jl

SEPT 05

Silenced: International Journalists Expose Media Censorship
ed. by David Dadge [Prometheus]

This collection of essays by journalists focuses on instances of media censorship across the world—mostly by governments and mostly outside the US. Editor David Dadge (of the Vienna-based International Press Institute) has his authors tell their stories as personal narratives. This makes for quite a bit of interesting readin, but also keeps the volume light on structural analysis. Dadge's introduction is also a missed opportunity to draw out connecting themes. Several of the essays are very good, including Steven Kimber's account of editorial interference by the owners of media conglomerate CanWest. The book's usefully international scope is undercut, however, by a surprising lack of diversity among the contributors. Nearly all of the writers are white, male journalists from the US, Oceania or Europe, whose essays about covering conflicts as outsiders in Liberia, Fiji, Haiti and Zimbabwe provide a somewhat homogenous perspective. -jl

SUMMER 05

Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A history of the hip-hop generation
by Jeff Chang [St. Martins]

Hip hop journalist Jeff Chang surpasses expectations with this brilliant and wide-ranging social history of hip hop. Covering a long time span from Jamaican protest music of the 1960s to the turn of the century, Chang’s propulsive narrative places well-known musican innovators in the context of a multifaceted social/cultural/political movement which was never just about music. -jl

Democratizing Global Media: One world, many struggles
ed. by Bob Hackett, Yuezhi Zhao [Rowman and Littlefield]

This international collection of essays explores the complex relationship between globalizing media and the spread of democracy around the world. Presenting contentious issues such as the power of media, the benefits of media globalization, and the political role of media, the authors offer positive alternatives as well as critiques.-jl

Pox Americana: Exposing the American Empire
ed. by John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney [Monthly Review]

Bad News: the Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger to Us All
by Tom Fenton [Regan]

Longtime CBS producer Fenton offers an insider indictment of how commercial and corporate concerns have perforated the newsroom firewall at CBS News and throughout TV News. Fenton calls for a movement to reform broadcast journalism before it's too late: "We need more and better news. Our lives depend on it." -jl

News Incorporated: Corporate media ownership and its threat to democracy
ed. by Elliott Cohen [Prometheus]

A fascinating and useful collection of essays, bringing together several important threads. Media analysis, independent media, freedom of speech, Internet regulation and journalistic standards are all treated in relation to the big beast of ownership consolidation and corporate influence over regulation. Chapters from Pete Tridish, Dorothy Kidd, Jay Harris and former FCC Commissioner Reed Hundt. -jl

The Future of Music: a manifesto for the digital music revolution
by Dave Kusek and Gerd Leonhard [Berklee]

How are new and upcoming listening technologies changing the music industry? Are digital downloads killing the record industry? Should we care? This concise book offers worthwhile critical discussions of these and other questions. The authors' tendency toward sanguine techno-libertarian prophesying is offset by their clear alignment with listeners' and musicians' interests. -jl

Into the Buzzsaw: Leading Journalists expose the myth of a free press
(new edition) ed. by Kristina Borjesson [Prometheus]

What goes on inside the sausage factory? Are news decisions made according to the public interest, or some other standard? In this page-turning collection, journalists working (or formerly working) inside the media mainstream recount tales of important stories killed, censored or buried. Contributors include CBS’ Dan Rather, MSNBC’s Ashleigh Banfield, former Fox producers Charles Reine and Jane Akre, and the late Pulitzer-winning journalist Gary Webb. -jl

COMCASTed: How Ralph and Brian Roberts took over America's TV, one deal at a time
by Joseph N. DiStefano [Camino]

Approaching the cable giant through the lives of its founding dynasty, COMCASTed portrays a company that got ahead through cronyism, careful avoidance of competition, notorious stinginess and determined opposition to consumer rights. A fascinating look at the rise of the cable industry as a whole, the book includes only brief chapters on current activist resistance to Comcast’s practices. -jl

War Made Easy: How presidents and pundits keep spinning us to death
by Norman Solomon [Wiley]

Many progressives were appalled by the Bush administration’s blatant propagandizing in the run-up to the Iraq war. But pro-war propaganda has a long history in the United States, and an almost formulaic quality. Solomon’s latest work examines recent disinformation campaigns in this historical context, hopefully making it easier to see through propaganda – and to foresee the next war. -jl

News Zero: the New York Times and the Bomb
by Beverly Deepe Keever [Common Courage]

In this compelling case study, reporter and professor Beverly Keever asks how our nation’s most prestigious propaganda machine systematically covered up the realities of nuclear testing during the cold war — and well beyond. -jl

War and the Media: Reporting Conflict 24/7
ed. by Daya Kishan Thussu and Des Freeman [Sage]

Intellectually rich examinations of post-9/11 reporting and the complex relationship between mass media and governments in wartime. Contributors include UK- and Middle East-based academics and journalists. -jl

SPRING 05

Many Voices, One World: Towards a new, more just, and more efficient world information and communication order
by the MacBride Commission [Rowman and Littlefield]

As relevant today as twenty-five years ago, this thankfully reissued UNESCO report examines global media and communications systems, and boldly calls for a future in which people's communications rights are foremost. An inspiring classic. -jl

Sarai Reader 04: Crisis/Media
[Autonomedia/sarai.net]

The latest from the Sarai collective examines issues of global crises — war, civil conflict, terrorism — and critically analyzes their representations in mass media. Are the crises in the media also instances of crises of the media? Have our media lost the ability to articulate questions of conflict and contention, other than in terms of crisis? Can mediamakers evolve forms of practice that are not beholden to the idea of Crisis? -jl

God Willing? Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the 'War on Terror' and the Echoing Press
by David Domke [Pluto]

Domke’s highly readable debut combines careful rhetorical analysis of the Bush White House with astute observations on contemporary religious categories and the media’s role in covering politics and religion. -jl