In the early 1980s, Ben Bagdikian’s famous book The Media Monopoly concluded that fewer than 50 firms dominated U.S. media, with the result that journalism was increasingly losing its ability to address the role and nature of corporate power in the U.S. political economy. By the time the fourth edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 1992, Bagdikian calculated that mergers and acquisitions had reduced the number of dominant media firms to two dozen. Since 1992, there has been an unprecedented wave of mergers and acquisitions among media giants, highlighted by the Time Warner purchase of Turner Broadcasting (CNN, TNT) and the Disney acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC. Continue reading CORPORATE MEDIA, ALTERNATIVE PRESS, AND AFRICAN AMERICANS, by Salim Muwakkil→
Over the past decade, an outspoken brand of iconoclastic journalism has emerged from the harsh experiences of people living on the streets in dozens of cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe. This dissident press of the poor has created a radical alternative to the values and biases of mainstream journalism at the very moment when poor people and those who challenge the status quo are largely shut out of the major media. Continue reading DISSENTING VOICES OF THE STREET, by Terry Messman→
As the smoke cleared from David Horowitz’s recent carpet-bombing of the issue of reparations for African Americans, he sought safe harbor in the First Amendment and then claimed that his attack was prompted by a desire to prevent African Americans from becoming targets of resentment over reparations. Sounds like the old Vietnam War saw about “bombing the village to save it.” What’s up with this Master of Mean, Prince of Conservative Politics? Continue reading ANTI-REPARATIONS ADS BUILD RIGHT-WING MOVEMEMENT. by Bill Berkowitz.→
Culminating in a march and protest at the doors of the San Francisco Chronicle on July 28, the international conference of the North American Street Newspaper Association (NASNA) gathered for three days of meetings and workshops to strengthen the street newspaper movement. For three blissful days in July, our NASNA conference brought struggling street poets, writers like myself, and homeless advocacy organizations such as the National Coalition on Homelessness face to face with more than forty street newspaper journalists from across the U.S. and Canada, as well as a handful of journalists from Europe and Great Britain. The diverse group of editors and publishers assembled under one unified roof to discuss and respond to issues as varied as are the newspapers themselves. Continue reading NORTH AMERICAN STREET NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION. by Challa Tabeson.→
It was 1976. Democracy was holding on for dear life in the aftermath of Watergate. And at the center of the drama were reporters; real reporters, damn it, like the ones I wanted to be when I grew up; the ones that would take on the big guns armed with little more than an old typewriter, a pad and pencil, and bad, plain label coffee.
These journalists and these times gave birth to Media Alliance more than a quarter century ago as an institution that would hold the profession, and democracy, accountable to the highest standards of quality and transparency. MA took on union busting, protection of reporters and sources, and the perpetual corporate cover up; and it moved beyond those issues to become the area’s most important training resource for those seeking a career in media and those seeking to influence the media for progressive change. Continue reading MEDIA ALLIANCE STAYS TRUE TO ITS ROOTS. by Makani Themba.→
At the huge peace demonstration in November in Florence, Italy, together with “No” to war on Iraq, were “No’s,” to globalization, genetically modified foods, commercial control of the Internet, copyright laws, and Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. While the mainstream media have trouble connecting the dots between these demands, the demonstration of a half-million people in the street was the culmination of a week of European Social Forum workshops, in which activists had been meeting to do exactly that: connect the demands of peace, media justice and anti-globalization. Continue reading STAYING HOME TO ORGANIZE THE GLOBAL STRUGGLE FOR INFORMATION JUSTICE. By Dorothy Kidd.→
“Most of them are kind of cuckoo and not real clean.”
From a Matier and Ross column in the San Francisco Chronicle (11/17/99) headlined “Influx of Homeless People Angers Youth Hostel Tenants,” this quote is emblematic of the tenor of reporting on the homeless by San Francisco’s dailies. The story follows the standard frame: Dirty, smelly homeless people are ruining the enjoyment of facility X (the hostel) by upstanding group Y (tourists). City department Z (the Office on Homelessness), while trying to do its best, is just too overwhelmed to make anyone happy. Middle- or working-class citizens are interviewed about the latest dilemma, and lo and behold, out from their mouths pop prejudice and stereotypes about the homeless. A reaction quote from advocates for the homeless rounds out the picture. Continue reading Commentary: S.F. DAILY PAPERS PIT MIDDLE CLASS AGAINST HOMELESS, by Ben Clarke→
Three years after the federal government ended subsistence guarantees for low-income people–and after hundreds of thousands of people have left or been kicked off the benefit rolls–welfare is no longer considered newsworthy. And the people, the vast majority of them children, whose lives have been irrevocably altered by benefit cut-offs simply aren’t worthy of public attention. That’s the conclusion that emerged from an exhaustive five-month study of welfare coverage in five major California newspapers. Media Alliance and media advocacy organization We Interrupt This Message surveyed the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, San Jose Mercury News, and Contra Costa Times from January 1 through May 31 of this year, analyzing all stories containing the word welfare in either the headline or subhead. We wanted to know how mainstream papers have approached the issue, and what this coverage has contributed to public perceptions and policy. Continue reading WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH WELFARE REFORM?, by Camille Taiara→
