Converging Media, Diverging Politics A Political Economy of News Media in the United States and Canada

by Skinner, David; Compton, James R.; Gasher, Michael; Clarke, Debra; Cooper, Mark; Dyer-Witheford, Nick; Dubois, Frédéric; Fairbairn, Danielle; Gasher, Mike; Horwitz, Robert; Jensen, Robert; Kidd, Dorothy; McGee, Francisco; McVicker, Jeanette; Paterson, Chr

• ISBN13: 9780739113066
• ISBN10: 0739113062
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-28
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

What purpose does the news media serve in contemporary North American society? In this collection of essays, experts from both the United States and Canada investigate this question, exploring the effects of media concentration in democratic systems. Specifically, the scholars collected here consider, from a range of vantage points, how corporate and technological convergence in the news industry in the United States and Canada impacts journalism's expressed role as a medium of democratic communication.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Has a Free Press Helped to Kill Democracy?	1	(6)
Robert Jensen
Mapping the Threads	7	(18)
David Skinner
James R. Compton
Mike Gasher
U.S. Media Policy Then and Now	25	(26)
Robert B. Horwitz
So Much by So Few: Media Policy and Ownership in Canada	51	(26)
David Skinner
Mike Gasher
Clear Channel: The Poster Child for Everything That's Wrong with Consolidation	77	(24)
Dorothy Kidd
Francisco McGee
Danielle Fairbairn
Aspergate: Concentration, Convergence, and Censorship in Canadian Media	101	(16)
Leslie Regan Shade
Hyper-Commercialism and the Media: The Threat to Journalism and Democratic Discourse	117	(28)
Mark Cooper
News Agency Dominance in International News on the Internet	145	(20)
Chris Paterson
Bourdieu's ``Show and Hide'' Paradox Reconsidered: Audience Experiences of Convergence in the Canadian Mediascape	165	(22)
Debra Clarke
Reforming Media: Parries and Pirouettes in the U.S. Policy Process	187	(14)
Ben Scott
Angels of the Public Interest: U.S. Media Reform	201	(22)
Dorothy Kidd
Journalism Education in the Posthistorical University	223	(26)
Jeanette McVicker
The Alternative Communication Movement in Quebec's Mediascape	249	(18)
Michel Senecal
Frederic Duhois
Canadian Cyberactivism in the Cycle of Counterglobalization Struggles	267	(24)
Nick Dyer-Witheford
Turning the Tide	291	(14)
David Skinner
James R. Compton
Mike Gasher
Bibliography	305	(30)
Index	335	(6)
List of Contributors	341