Media and Society: An Interview with Robert McChesney

2002 ◽  
Vol 83 (5) ◽  
pp. 567-572
Author(s):  
Wiliam E. Powell ◽  
Mary L. Kelly-Powell

Robert McChesney was interviewed in late 2001 in Urbana, Illinois. He is a research professor in the Institute of Communication Research and the Graduate School of Information and Library Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He is also the noted author of several books including Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times and It's the Media, Stupid! The interview was conducted to broaden our understanding of the interplay of social issues and the media. Being cognizant of changes in the American media is particularly important in the policy arena where the dissemination of information and the shaping of public opinion is critical to the success of our efforts on behalf of our clients. McChesney candidly illuminates his views about the confluence of recent political, social, and economic changes that shape our media, our knowledge, and the context of efforts to affect social change.

Comunicar ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (39) ◽  
pp. 91-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Pereira ◽  
Manuel Pinto ◽  
Luis Pereira

Much has been said and written about media education, its relevance and goals. Beyond directives, resolutions or recommendations, research in this area has deepened the foundations of media education but has also emphasized its weak points or faults. One of these critical points noted in the training and research work developed at the University of Minho, Portugal, in the last 20 years is the non-existence of resources and materials that could be used to promote media education in different contexts. But this is not just about the availability of materials, it concerns the importance of putting knowledge into practice and of mediating the knowledge produced with the appropriate audience. This concern was the basis of the ‘Media Education in Booklets’ project carried out by the Society and Communication Research Centre and funded by the Evens Foundation, Belgium. This paper presents the resources produced by this project in the form of three booklets: the first deals with the mediation of TV at school and at home; the second describes videogames, ways of playing, benefits, dangers, creativity and interculturality; the third is about the Internet and social networks, and the new forms of relationships and communication that these allow.Mucho se ha investigado sobre la educación en medios, su importancia y objetivos. Más allá de las directivas, resoluciones o recomendaciones, la investigación en esta área ha permitido profundizar y solidificar sus fundamentos, al tiempo que ha facilitado el reconocimiento de sus puntos más débiles u omisiones. Uno de los puntos críticos destacados por la formación y por el trabajo de investigación que se ha desarrollado en la Universidad de Miño (Portugal) durante los últimos 20 años, es la inexistencia de recursos y materiales que puedan utilizarse para la promoción de la educación en los medios de comunicación en diferentes contextos. De esta forma, independientemente de los recursos y materiales, se genera la importancia de la transferencia de conocimientos a la práctica, la trascendencia de la mediación del conocimiento producido a su público. Esta preocupación fue la base principal del proyecto titulado «Recursos para la alfabetización mediática» llevado a cabo en el Centro de Estudios de Comunicación y Sociedad y financiado por Evens Foundation (Bélgica). Este trabajo presenta sucintamente los procesos de creación y los resultados generados por estos recursos, centrados en tres medios: televisión, videojuegos e Internet y redes sociales.


Author(s):  
Carol Boggess

This chapter describes the third and last step in his higher education. Guy Loomis funded Still and Dare Redmond to earn a BS degree in library science from the University of Illinois in Champaign. His first semester was rough because his mother, whose health had been declining, died of cancer in early October. That was the biggest challenge of his months in Illinois because the courses were not demanding. His ultimate goal for this degree was to get a job.


2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 224-237
Author(s):  
Robert McChesney

AbstractAmong those who care about serious journalism, some are counting on an economic comeback that will bring sufficient media advertising back to newspapers and Web sites to support quality reporting; others bet on the evolution of paywalls and a public that will change course and learn to buy news content; still others put their money on other kinds of news innovation, in which new kinds of outlets find ways to sustain themselves once the philanthropists are tapped out or move on. But what if none of these things work? What is left?Robert W. McChesney is one of those who argue that what is left is public policy and public funding that recognizes and sustains reporting as a public good. McChesney teaches in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is the co-author, with John Nichols, of The Death and Life of American Journalism: the Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again.


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