Product Description

This text describes in detail the recent rapid growth and crossborder activities and linkages of an industry of large global media conglomerates. It also assesses the significance of the ongoing deregulation and convergence of the global media and telecommunications systems and the rise of the Internet. The authors argue that the most important features of this globalization process are the implantation, consolidation and concentration of an advertisement-based commercial media and parallel weakening of public broadcasting systems worldwide, with negative consequences on the "public sphere".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1234967 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Customer Reviews

Superb analysis of the domination of capital in the media
Professors Herman and McChesney sharply analyse the commercialization of the mass media over the last 20 years, and its increasingly global nature. Their debunking of corporate libertarian myths regarding the market providing consumer sovreignty in this arena, and the alert they sound, concerning the consequences of a few firms dominating the media and undermining democracy and the working class, makes this an essential read for all independantly minded citizens. Their treatment of the internet in particular is well worth reading.

Enlightening, powerful and persuasive
This is by far the best book I have read about the media. The authors explain that the media system has come to be dominated by a few large corporations who use their market powers largely to promote a world-wide monoculture of consumerism. The media companies do this by distributing non-controversial entertainment and infotainment programs. This strategy is funded by multinational corporations wishing to sell their products to ever-expanding markets and supported by the elite classes who benefit the most from capitalist growth. The commercial media companies use their control of broadcast network systems to limit access to alternative materials (especially local content celebrating diversity and alternative, non-capitalist values), forcing consumers to accept the paradox of choice within a narrowly-defined range of possibilities. Meanwhile, as public broadcasting systems falter, the authors point out that citizens who are immersed in commercial media gradually embrace the values of selfish individualism and materialism and tend to disengage from their local communities.

With thorough documentation and clear, persuasive analysis, Herman and McChesney dissect the defenders of media globalization and commercialization and explain why democratic alternatives to the corporate media system are critical to maintaining a healthy democracy. Highly recommended.

Informative
This is the second book I've read by MChesney and as with the first one, I found it very informative and important to understanding the ways market forces are shaping global societies on a daily basis. Few people in this country realize the impact of U.S. media conglemerates on other countries. It's too often assumed that what is good for America is good for the world. Well, McChesney and Herman show that it's not. Capitlaist driven media is helping to destablize pubic interests and voices throughout the globe. Owrell's Big Brother is not needed. We simply get from dominate media mergers limited choices about what is happening in the world today. By delivering these limited choices, profit driven media help themselves and other powerful capitalists maintain their own interests and power. Notice, for example, how ABC, CBS, NBC, and even CNN reported the same thing about what took with the recent elections. There's no alternative view, there's only the corporate view. That's what advertisers pay for and that's what the dominate media delivers. The next book I'm reading on this subject is Dean Alger's "Medgamedia," which seems be even more lucidly written than McChesney and Herman's.