The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again |  | Authors: Robert W. McChesney, John Nichols
Publisher: Nation Books
Category: Book
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Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 21793
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 352
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Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 1568586051
Dewey Decimal Number: 071.3
EAN: 9781568586052
ASIN: 1568586051
Publication Date: January 5, 2010
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Product Description
Daily newspapers are closing across America. Washington bureaus are shuttering; whole areas of the federal government are now operating with no press coverage. International bureaus are going, going, gone. Journalism, the counterbalance to corporate and political power, the lifeblood of American democracy, is not just threatened. It is in meltdown. In The Death and Life of American Journalism, Robert W. McChesney, an academic, and John Nichols, a journalist, who together founded the nation’s leading media reform network, Free Press, investigate the crisis. They propose a bold strategy for saving journalism and saving democracy, one that looks back to how the Founding Fathers ensured free press protection with the First Amendment and provided subsidies to the burgeoning print press of the young nation.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
 honesty in media January 16, 2010
Gunther Purdue (USA)
22 out of 26 found this review helpful
This is another in a long line of enlightening and valuable studies by the authors pertaining the role of big business in the demise of American news media in the name of profit. It is required reading for anyone concerned with the loss of the democratic values that once served as the foundation of journalistic enterprise.
Be afraid of small-minded critics. January 16, 2010
38 out of 47 found this review helpful
Not only is this book NOT radical, it is intelligently written, well-researched, timely, and important. A functional democracy requires a healthy press, and clearly the US press is suffering under the influence of private capital. (Fox News is the poster child of our moribund press, but it is not alone). Public investment in journalism is a refreshing idea and one that should be take seriously.
Truly free media, not corporate CENSORSHIP January 29, 2010
blueyes
21 out of 27 found this review helpful
No one in their right mind would call our current media free and fair and democratic. Aside from PBS all privately owned corporate news media is biased to the n-th degree. The truth has a hard time getting out if it gets out at all, not to mention all the manipulation that's going on. I saw the authors of this book on PBS and their solution makes perfect sense. The easiest and most cowardly thing to do is to incite people and Americans have been incited by fearmongers about government involvement. I admit that the way the U.S. Government is run (and has been run) doesn't put my mind at ease but there is a time and a place for government involvement if it's done right. It CAN be done and this is one of those times. Having lived under communism, socialism and now capitalism I can tell you that capitalism is not all that it's cracked up to be. Communism doesn't work for sure but in the past couple of years we have seen that unbridled capitalism doesn't work either. It has to be checked with socially responsible rules and regulations for the public good. The current news media is owned by corporations who only tell you about things that benefit them or their interests and CENSOR everything else. If you think that that's free, fair and democratic then I have a bridge I want to sell ya. If Americans would care to travel to other countries (instead of living out their lives in the town, city or state they were born in) then they would realize that they are being fed mostly BS. They would not be afraid of many of the things they have been led to believe. They would see that when it comes to publicly funded media there is nothing to fear because publicly funded media is the most democratic, fair and trustworthy you can get. The BBC, CBC and most Scandinavian news media has nothing to fear and many times they are their government's own worst critics. They have a very high standard for journalism and you can trust them to give it to you straight. Getting a coupon or voucher that I can give to ANY news outlet I want to as long as they are non-profit would be the best thing for this country. The government would guarantee a certain percentage of GDP to be spent on those coupons and no politician could block the money, withhold it, manipulate it or retaliate with it if a newspaper or other media outlet published something they didn't like. That is what these authors are talking about and there is nothing radical about that.
Great way to think about the press June 27, 2010
Forrest Burtnette (Charlottesville, VA, US)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The authors point out that Jefferson, Madison, Washington and Franklin along with the majority of the other founding fathers wanted a goverenment-subsidized press. Even Hamilton wanted it, and he was one of the most laisez-faire founders. They all recognized the importance of keeping the people informed. I have to admit of all the programming on TV, I think the government-subsidized PBS the most edifying channel on TV. Democracy does not work without a truly vibrant press. Both democracy and the press are in peril in America, and the authors point out that this is no coincidence, as they are inextricably linked. Some would say federal subsidies for journalism is a radical idea, but it is actually a very old, thoroughly american idea. We as a people have just been duped into thinking that the free market will sort it all out and supply quality news. Although NBC, CNN, FOX etc. report some stories well, like hurricanes and sporting events, the sensitive stories about corruption are usually watered down or cartoonishly-sensationalized. Thousands of exposees never get writen because of the lack of investigative journalism at many news firms. This deprives the public of critical information they need to intelligently vote. McChesney and Nichols argue that we make decisions on what we know. What we know about current events and government is obtained mostly from the media. Why not return to the way of thinking about the press when the country was first formed? It is not enough for government to just not interfere with free press. It is government's job to actively promote a free press, because as John C. Calhoun proclaimed in the early 1800s, "The mail and the press are the nerves of the body politic".
Radically truthful May 8, 2010
Dutch (Playa Del Rey, US, Canada)
I've just read this book and find it indeed radical in that the authors discuss what to so many media outlets in un-speakable... Truth about the fate of our system of journalism and along with it, the fate of our functioning Democracy.
The core foundation of our Nation's "4th Estate", the media, was rooted in the very foundations of our system of government. Robert McChesney and John Nichols remind us that our original media, the printed press, was subsidized and fostered by our own government without any strings to the content. The media system as we know it top day reflects little or none of the diversity of opinion, the broad range of content, depth of discussion vibrancy it has had in the past. With an ever increasing focus on Profit as the sole motivation of our media owners and a shrinking number of corporations controlling production and content, we need to reinvent the Press-"wheel" or our representative democracy is likely to perish. The press we engage in the near future may look nothing like that with which we grew up and that's okay. The point is that a well informed, concerned populace is fundamental to a functioning Democratic Republic and the current media-mogul model is not fostering it. McChesney and Nichols bring together the voices and minds with the most viable solutions for this crisis of Democracy.
So, while mid sized and small local papers lay off entire newsrooms or shut their doors altogether, the larger Presses keep rolling without a word about the real crisis and a perspective of its actual titanic scale.
This is a radical book in that it calls the media crisis just what it is, a crisis of Democracy. Furthermore this book will stoke the fires of creativity and entrepreneurialism that will indeed steer us back on course and salvage and strengthen our Press and our Democracy along with it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
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