Don't Trust the Corporate Media | Media. August 25, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Dear AlterNet Reader, I'm writing you, in the heat of August, with surprising earthquakes and hurricanes on the East Coast, and on the chance that you are reading your e-mails and AlterNet, and not on vacation -- though a vacation is a very good idea about this time. We are in an agonizing, infuriating, depressing political crisis -- I don't have to tell you that. We Must Do Something But we must do something. Normally we wouldn't start our Fall campaign until after Labor Day, but frankly we couldn't wait. The Corporate Media Facilitates Taking the Nation Hostage In the current crisis, as Paul Krugman writes, the right-wing "Republicans have taken the nation hostage. " But you know what? The radical conservatives pay no price for trying to wreck the economy with their lies, and their hostage taking.
Fight the Propaganda Machine Our Goal and the Plan What is our goal? How Disney Instills Greed and Consumerism -- Starting at Three Months | Media. August 26, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. In American culture, Disney has become synonymous with childhood.
Present-day grandparents grew up watching the animated films, wearing Mickey Mouse pajamas and begging to go to Disneyland. Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock explore this relationship between consumer and industry in their book " The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence. " [ Full disclosure: Henry Giroux is a member of Truthout's Board of Directors.] Cuddly cartoon animals and whimsical fairy-tale stories are merely Disney's public face. Giroux and Pollock's peerless scholarship exposes Disney through essential, hard-hitting information that America needs to face.
The authors quote Walt Disney: "I think of a child's mind as a blank book. The Baby Einstein products are designed to entertain and educate children as young as three months. Will Riots In The Streets Lead To Crackdowns On Internet Freedom? | Media. August 11, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. The government is contemplating tactics against the UK riots that set dangerous precedents. In Parliament today, prime minister David Cameron said authorities and the industry were looking at "whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality".
Well, at least he did posit it as a question of right and wrong. It would be wrong, sir. Cameron also said, according to a Guardian tweet, that he would look at asking online services to take down offending photos. Beware, sir. This regulatory reflex further exposes the danger of British government thinking it can and should regulate media. There is also debate about tactics to restrict anonymity in public. But again, be aware of the precedents these actions would set. 12 Ways Rupert Murdoch's Media Empire Has Made the World Worse | Media. July 25, 2011 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. This column originally appeared at WhoWhatWhy.com. Rupert Murdoch has had a profound influence on the state of journalism today. To be sure, the activities and actions of Murdoch’s that dominate the public conversation at the moment are deeply troubling, leaving aside their alleged criminality.
It is, instead, the very essence of the man and his empire, and their long-term impact on our world and our lives. Here are twelve “take-away” points that are being obscured in the daily rush of revelations, and the related specialized coverage (his wife’s wardrobe and demeanor, the effect on his company’s stock price, etc He has transformed world politics for the worse : It was George W. He has ridiculed and raised doubts about global catastrophes, and about science itself , while elevating absurd theories and hyping minor matters. He has turned the public against the press . Phone hacking fallout: Labour plans tighter media regulation | Media. Journalists guilty of gross malpractice should be struck off a professional register to prevent them working in news, the shadow culture secretary will suggest at the Labour conference on Tuesday.
Ivan Lewis is proposing a "system of independent regulation including proper like-for-like redress which means mistakes and falsehoods on the front page receive apologies and retraction on the front page". He will also warn Rupert Murdoch's News International that Labour will never allow the corporation to use its media influence to exert political power in pursuit of ideological or commercial goals. His remarks represent a further break from Murdoch by Labour.
Ed Miliband, the party's leader, has been widely praised for taking a risk in condemning the Murdoch corporation over phone hacking. Lewis will deliver what he describes as a "message for Mr Murdoch" and will say: "Your newspapers and Sky TV are popular with millions of British people. Praising Rupert Murdoch fits like a Gove | Media Monkey | Media.
Despite recent goings-on the education secretary, Michael Gove, remains a big fan of his former employer Ruper Murdoch. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian Speaking of Rupert Murdoch with anything but newfound disgust has become the order of the day in Westminster circles. Not so for Michael Gove. The cabinet minister used his party's annual conference on Monday to extol the virtues of the embattled media mogul. "I think he is a force of nature and a phenomenon. I think he is a great man," the education secretary told delegates in Manchester. Hall can tell Leveson how Murdoch exercises editorial power | Media. Phil Hall steps up to the Leveson plate. Photo: David Sillitoe for the Guardian I am delighted that one of the first people to speak at Thursday's first Leveson inquiry seminar will be Phil Hall, editor of the News of the World from September 1995 until May 2000.
He was replaced by Rebekah Brooks in circumstances that cast an interesting, and disturbing, light on the power of the News Corp boss, Rupert Murdoch. Hall was editor when, on 21 November 1999, the paper published one of its most sensational exclusives: "Archer quits as News of the World exposes false alibi". It was a truly sensational story, exposing Lord (Jeffrey) Archer, a former Tory MP, as a liar and perjurer in his 1987 libel action against the Daily Star. The story led directly to Archer being convicted, in July 2001, of perjury and perverting the course of justice. He was sentenced to four years in jail. One man who surely did not want to see Archer exposed for his crimes was Murdoch. Amy Goodman: Rotten Eggs and Our Broken Democracy. Rotten Eggs and Our Broken Democracy Posted on Aug 25, 2010 By Amy Goodman What do a half-billion eggs have to do with democracy? The massive recall of salmonella-infected eggs, the largest egg recall in U.S. history, opens a window on the power of large corporations over not only our health, but over our government.
While scores of brands have been recalled, they all can be traced back to just two egg farms. The salmonella outbreak is just the most recent episode of many that point to a food industry run amok. The salmonella-tainted eggs came from just two factory farms, Hillandale Farms and Wright County Egg, both in Iowa. The Associated Press offered a summary of DeCoster’s multistate egg and hog operation’s health, safety and employment violations. Despite all this, DeCoster has thrived in the egg and hog business, which puts him in league with other large corporations, like BP and the major banks. The banking industry is another chronic offender. There is hope. Study: Most companies are not prepared for a social media crisis. As emptied grocery store shelves along the East Coast proved last week, people like to prepare for impending crises. That is, unless those crises are happening on social media sites, a recent study from Altimeter Group found.
"Companies are quick to deploy the latest social media technology, yet most companies are not prepared for the threat of social media crises, or the long-term impacts to business," the Altimeter report states in its executive summary. About 76 percent of crises could be avoided or diminished, the study found. Even companies that have implemented advanced social media policies are ill equipped, because of what the report calls "fragmented technology" and a failure to tie concrete customer data to support systems and "the product roadmap. " How does a company get to that point? Defining a crisis Just what constitutes a crisis anyway? According to the report, from 2007 to 2008 the number of such social media crises doubled.
The findings Reaching enlightenment. OWS Social Media's Role In Social Change. NEW YORK -- A panel on social innovation and social change started with a joke. A panelist said they should go the full hour without saying the word "Twitter. " But Twitter, along with Facebook, were unavoidable terms that came up repeatedly in the discussion Thursday at an Advertising Week event at 300 Madison Avenue in New York City. The talk started with the Egypt revolution and inevitably turned to Occupy Wall Street, an ongoing event just a few miles away in Lower Manhattan.
More than 450,000 Facebook users have joined Occupy Wall Street pages to date (scroll down for graph); Twitter chatter has surged. The big question: Does social innovation equal social change? "These tools are actually not that complicated," Change.org founder Ben Rattray said, downplaying the "innovation" part of the technology. Rattray added that social media is used for "supporting, not supplanting, existing strategies," though at the same time it can absolutely "spark something that wouldn't exist," he said.
10 Predictions For The Future Of Media. Media, advertising, marketing and communications leaders converged for a forum on the ever-debated topic of "the future of media" this morning at New York University's Kimmel Center as part of Advertising Week. Digital was a common theme in the roundtable discussion moderated by Josh Quittner, editorial director of Flipboard, and presented by MediaPost Communications. Panelists for the fourth annual "Future of Media Forum" included Bob Carrigan (CEO, IDG Communications), Beth Comstick (SVP and Chief Marketing, General Electric), Mike Kelly (CEO, The Weather Channel), Steve Lacy (CEO, Meredith Corporation), Brian Monahan (EVP, Managing Director, IPG Media Lab), and Bob Pittman (Chairman, Clear Channel Media and Entertainment Platforms). Past panelists at the event have included Martha Stewart, Ev Williams, Mark Cuban, Susan Whiting, Reed Hoffman and Fred Wilson.
Here are 10 predictions from panelists at this year's forum on what the future of media will look like in five to ten years.