Stories by Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter writes the News Dissector blog for MediaChannel.org. His latest book is PLUNDER: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books).
As the World Conference Against Racism gets underway in South Africa, it's time for media institutions to discuss how racism insinuates itself into their culture and coverage.
Posted on Aug 28, 2001, Source: MediaChannel.org
The media industry is experiencing hard times, with more layoffs and firings. But there is also a vast restructuring going on in the business world that isn't being presented by the media in human terms.
Posted on Aug 21, 2001, Source: MediaChannel.org
Personal Web sites, or Weblogs, are gaining traffic and credibility each day, dashing Microsoft's hopes of keeping control of Net surfers in their powerful grasp.
Posted on Aug 7, 2001, Source: MediaChannel.org
As the head of the FCC bows to the free market, would-be deregulators should remember that television is not just "a toaster with pictures."
Posted on Jul 31, 2001, Source: MediaChannel.org
Police shootings in Jamaica and Genoa are linked by underlying economic and social issues that don't receive the coverage they deserve.
Posted on Jul 25, 2001, Source: MediaChannel.org
It is a common belief that the media actively contributes to the misery and violence of the world. But Johann Galtung doesn't just argue this line, he presents solutions.
Posted on Jul 18, 2001, Source: MediaChannel.org
For a week, heavily equipped police and military units turned Davos, Switzerland, into a bad version of Berlin's old Checkpoint Charlie, all in the name of protecting the World Economic Forum from anti-corporate protesters.
Posted on Feb 1, 2001, Source: MediaChannel.org
The American election drama has so far had the effect of delegitimizing virtually every institution that it sucks into its vortex, including the mainstream media.
Posted on Dec 13, 2000, Source: MediaChannel.org
The Pacifica Radio brass are trying to force Amy Goodman, the outspoken host of Democracy Now, out of her job. In response, media activists have quickly mobilized a series of protests slated for Wednesday, October 25.
Posted on Oct 24, 2000, Source: MediaChannel.org
The media assumes ethnicity is an adequate guide to understanding the underlying politics of the Arab-Israeli crisis. Three American Jews explain why it isn't.
Posted on Oct 18, 2000, Source: MediaChannel.org
With 150 heads of state at the United Nations for a millennial talkfest, one nation, China, seems to be getting the most media attention. But, as MediaChannel News Dissector Danny Schechter observes, human rights issues and the plight of Falun Gong are being overlooked on both sides of the Pacific Rim.
Posted on Sep 1, 2000, Source: MediaChannel.org
The GOP only issued 350 press seats for this year's convention, down from 750 last election, which shows that they don't want any news coming out that they haven't carefully scripted. Meanwhile, independent media operatives have done a stellar job of covering events outside the convention hall.
Posted on Aug 1, 2000, Source: MediaChannel.org
In South Africa dramatic changes in politics have produced only minor changes in the media. What is it about globalization that seems to limit, if not undercut, a more progressive media?
Posted on Jul 31, 2000, Source: MediaChannel.org
TimeWarner-AOL CEO-elect Gerald Levin is a modern day, media Mao Tse-Tung. Like the former chairman of China, Levin will lead a massive, top down international network committed to infiltrating our minds and way of life.
Posted on Jul 6, 2000, Source: MediaChannel.org
The Internet as we know it will soon be as obsolete as black-and-white TV. Why? Because decisions are being made right now that could limit access, control content and make us pay for information that we now access for free.
Posted on Jun 29, 2000, Source: MediaChannel.org
"When CNN went on air, it was scoffed at by the Big Broadcast Boys as the Chicken Noodle Network. In 20 years it went from a fledgling operation to a multi-channel news machine, available in airports, hotel rooms and now on cell phones."
Posted on Jun 8, 2000, Source: MediaChannel.org
Senator John McCain's involvement in the FCC decision in favor of one of his financial contributors, Lowell Paxson, has gotten a lot of press. But some argue that by concentrating on the political scandal aspect, the media is missing the real guts of the story: a classic conflict between public and commercial interests in the media.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Responding to the public's increasing rejection of junk news, The National Enquirer, America's most popular tabloid, is starting to forego "UFO-aliens-Elvis" reporting for more respectable news. Many other media outlets may soon follow, once they read the tea leaves and recognize the growing revulsion against sensationalism posing as substance. But on television, the myth that "sleeze sells" dies hard -- and gives us shows like, "When Pets Go Bad, Part 2."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Monica is now global. Media critic Danny Schechter beat her to London by two days, just in time to see La Lewinsky Bonanza descend on England. As soon as she arrived, the British press was willingly co-opted -- just like its American cousins -- into a hyperactive hype machine. There is less Monica madness there, but no less media exploitation.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Now that Monicagate is over, now that the impeachment trial fizzled in the Senate, will media mavens get back to serious news? Will they go back to before the O.J.-ization of news became a permanent part of the mediascape, focusing all attention on one sensational ongoing story at a time? Not likely! Danny Schechter explains why the new business "logic" of the corporate media will force reporters to find another sensational scandal.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Two years ago, the networks and the cable news channels featured 26 hours of news magazine programming. This year, there are 63 hours on the air. Why the jump? Newsmags are cheaper to make than dramas or sit coms, and the networks can own and repackage them outright without forking out pricey license fees. Increasingly, they have replaced any mission to inform with formulas borrowed from entertainment. By pushing emotional buttons, they condition viewers to expect news as just storytelling, not whistle blowing. In a heavily hyped 'information age,' on the tube at least, information is increasingly in short supply.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Journalist Danny Schechter reflects on his travels through war-torn Vietnam in 1974, as compared to his return 23 years later: "Despite all of these problems, Vietnam is today a country at peace, coping with the pressures of globalization like so many of its third world neighbors. The war is now a memory although its legacy in lost years of development and scattered memorials for the millions who died are evident."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
It's been l8 months since nearly 700 media malcontents gathered in San Francisco under the auspices of the Institute for Alternative Journalism to sound the alarm about the dangers of media mergers. As the Second Media and Democracy Congress converges on New York, there have been a number of developments worth assessing, frightening trends and puzzling contradictions among them.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: deleted
Princess Diana, who turned her attention in her latter years to promoting peace, ironically became the latest victim of a new kind of war -- the media war. The kiss of fame that began for her so innocently on the tube ended so gruesomly in a tunnel, as this global icon became the latest and most visible victim of what one lower Manhattan muralist called "media overkill." The paparazzi chasing her, the publications underwriting their aggressive tactics, as well as the public mesmerized by her mythic story book and roller coaster lifestyle are all part of the same dynamic, feeding on and feeding off, larger unseen forces.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: deleted
Once again, Africa's crises -- the disastrous flooding in Mozambique and the threat of a new famine in Ethiopia -- are getting only limited coverage. That's because the TV news business has changed since the days of Live Aid and "We Are the World." Danny Schechter, executive editor of the MediaChannel.org, explains why media has gone from being an ally of suffering people to an enemy.
Posted on Apr 1, 2000, Source: MediaChannel.org
In the l950's the movie monopolies were broken up through anti-trust laws, but they are coming back together under new arrangements, ostensibly legal. Fewer companies own and control the outlets, while a smaller number of movie moguls decide what gets made and what gets seen. Even at today's American Film Market -- where independent filmmakers come to find funders or a distributor -- it's more about commissions and grosses than quality filmmaking.
Posted on Apr 1, 2000, Source: MediaChannel.org
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