Review: We the Media
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We the Media: A Citizen's Guide
to Fighting for Media Democracy Publisher: The New Press Are you concerned about the state of the media today, but just can't wrap your mind around the problem? Do you know you don't like Disney, and want to avoid supporting its empire, but aren't sure just where its tentacles have spread? And do you feel hopeless about where to turn to fight for change? If so, We the Media is the book for you. By no means is it comprehensive; I'd call it a 'Media Problems 101'-style text instead. A scant 222 pages isn't nearly enough to delve fully into the problems at hand - and when you throw in the modular design, complete with lots of illustrations, there's a lot less information here than you'd think 222 pages would contain. Even so, this book is a great place to get a feel for the scope of the problem of hyper-concentrated media in America - easy-to-understand charts help to show the alarming extent to which massive media companies have grips on everything from books to television to the movies. Sidebars contain important quotes from influential authors and activists, boiling down their theses into easily-digestible nuggets. And while a legend of icons may over-simplify the problem, they do point the reader to helpful suggestions they can take away and implement on their own to combat the media malady. Starting with an overview of media ownership, We the Media highlights the top companies with the largest reach across all platforms. Even though the book was published in 1997, and much of its corporate information is outdated, the picture painted is still scary.
We the Media then turns to the issue of access - as companies push further towards maximizing the bottom line, controversial yet important topics and views are dropped in favor of 'not rocking the boat' - downplaying significant issues while hyping the trivial. Where will this lead? The book doesn't really say, except that if the trends it's highlighted continue, any shards of what we think of as 'the media' today will be completely unrecognizable in the future, once everything's been packaged for profit. What's cool about We the Media is that every problem it highlights is also coupled with examples of people working on solutions to the problem; grey-background sidebars tell the tales of various groups and individuals who've already focused their efforts on changing the status quo in specific areas of the industry. This side-by-side layout goes a long way to make the reader feel that all's not lost just yet - and that there's a way for everyone to get involved in the fight. My only beef comes with trying to figure out the overall design of the book: while it's good to break everything up into manageable chunks that are easier to comprehend, I found myself often getting lost in where one block of text connected to another. And since We the Media is more a compendium of short writings from dozens of authors, the overall tone and message isn't completely consistent, which may turn off some readers. Otherwise, We the Media is a great place to begin your foray into identifying and addressing the problems of today's mainstream media as a 'business' - the contacts provided within are more than worth the purchase price alone. |
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