Increasingly
the media are owned by a small group of very large
corporations--corporations with extensive interests
outside the industry, run by the corporate élite.
Instead of offering diverse perspectives on events
and issues, Winter believes that the corporate media
portray an increasingly myopic and orthodox picture
of the world around us, and, the consistency with
which they do this has its consequent, intended
effect on public opinion and policy formation.
Citing
international events, this book introduces the idea
of "mediathink"--the means by which the
media create a particular picture of the world in our
heads.
In recent
years mediathink has included an emphasis on tax
cuts, social program slashing, globalization, free
trade, and competitiveness. We've seen the
manufacture of deficit hysteria as an excuse for
slashing the social safety net. Deficit hysteria is
also a generalized strategy for reducing the role of
government in society, increasing unemployment,
driving down wages, and otherwise attacking the poor
and downtrodden.
Knowing that
we have the need, the audience, the progressive
journalists, and writers for a truly hard-hitting
alternative media force, Winters calls for a major
reorganization of alternative media that would get us
out from under this oppressive system of mediathink.
Table of Contents
James Winter,
Ph.D., is aa associate professor of Communication
Studies at the University of Windsor, and editor and
publisher of the award-winning, muckraking web daily,
Flipside. He is one of
Canada's most knowledgeable media critics, author of Common
Cents: Media Portrayal of the Gulf War and Other
Events (1992), and the critically
acclaimed Democracy's
Oxygen: How the Corporations Control the News (1997), both
published by Black Rose Books.
232 pages,
index
Paperback ISBN: 1-55164-054-6 $24.99
Hardcover ISBN: 1-55164-055-4 $53.99
Cultural Studies
November 2001
