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Title: The New Media Monopoly by Ben H. Bagdikian ISBN: 0-8070-6187-5 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 15 May, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)
Rating: 4
Summary: Critical but Uneven Manifesto on the Corporate Media
Comment: This is the newly updated version of Bagdikian's classic tome *The Media Monopoly* which first appeared in 1983 and was prescient enough to reach six editions by 2000. While dismissed as alarmism, with each edition of the book the problem of corporate media consolidation became worse, and now we are down to just five mega-conglomerates controlling almost all media content, and subsequently most political and social thought among the American public. Bagdikian is an expert commentator on the effects this has on popular democracy and social justice, and the problem has become so bad that it became necessary to create a completely revised text, rather than just a "new" edition of the old book with some tacked-on updates.
This powerful manifesto by Bagdikian sometimes suffers from a lack of focus. One frequent weakness is his tendency to opinionate on the social issues he uses as examples of poor mainstream media coverage. Examples include homelessness and smoking, in which Bagdikian forgets his analysis of media control issues and embarks on long expostulations of his own personal politics. A more general issue is his tendency to drift into political science as applied to modern corporate conservatism and crony capitalism. These are subjects in which Bagdikian is certainly proficient, and they are the root causes of the horrific state of American media. However, Bagdikian frequently drifts from useful media analysis to occasionally cranky political tirades that detract from the focus and power of the book's main points.
And even though this is a completely new edition, much of the text has still been copied verbatim from the old versions of the original book, leading to odd appearances of stories and examples from the 1960s and 70s, some of which have little modern relevance. The new chapter on the internet gives the impression that Bagdikian is barely familiar with that realm, as he gives remedial introductions to concepts that most of us are long familiar with. Other writers and analysts have now taken the issue of corporate media control and produced outstanding treatises that surpass Bagdikian's groundbreaking work (I especially recommend Robert W. McChesney). However, Bagdikian is still the originator and when he's focused, his insights into the social and political damage wrought by our corporate media are still powerful and prescient. [~doomsdayer520~]
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Title: The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Robert W. McChesney ISBN: 1583671056 Publisher: Monthly Review Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times by Robert W. McChesney ISBN: 1565846346 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Creation of the Media by Paul Starr ISBN: 0465081932 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 30 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy (Open Media Pamphlet Series) by Robert W. McChesney ISBN: 1888363479 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: Our Media, Not Theirs: The Democratic Struggle Against Corporate Media (Open Media Book) by Robert W. McChesney, John Nichols ISBN: 1583225498 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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