Media Studies
The growth of mass media and the means of communication have done for the shaping and production of consciousness what the industrial revolution has done for material goods and the growth of society's productive forces. With even further radical changes brought about by the many-to-many modes of communication on the internet, media studies is even more critical to social change and understanding 21st century social orders.
No Logo: Brands, Globalization and Resistance
This 40-minute video based on the book by Naomi Klein unmasks process whereby corporations discovered that profits lay not in making products (outsourced to low-wage workers in developing countries), but in creating branded identities people adopt in their lifestyle.
Access HereNews for All the People
Three videos totalling 40 minutes examines how the media has played a pivotal role in perpetuating racist views in the United States. It recalls lives of the unsung pioneering black, Latino, Native American and Asian-American journalists who challenged the worst racial aspects of the white-owned media. It also tells the untold story of how the fight over who controls the Internet is just the latest chapter in a centuries-old debate on the role of the media — and the technologies used to deliver it — in a democracy. Amy Goodman speaks with the book's authors, D award-winning journalist Juan González, and Joseph Torres of the media reform organization, Free Press.
Access Here
The Myth of Liberal Media
One hour video lecture. Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky demolish one of the central tenets of our political culture, the idea of the "liberal media." Instead, utilizing a systematic model based on massive empirical research, they reveal the manner in which the news media are so subordinated to corporate and conservative interests that their function can only be described as that of "elite propaganda."
Access Here
PsyWar - Wake Up!
This 100-minute film explores the evolution of propaganda and public relations in the United States, with an emphasis on the elitist theory of democracy and the relationship between war, propaganda and class. Includes original interviews with a number of dissident scholars including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Peter Phillips (Project Censored), John Stauber (PR Watch), Christopher Simpson (The Science of Coercion) and others.
Access Here
Hollywood and the Pentagon: Dangerous Liasion
The American Army’s intrusion in Hollywood war films may surprise some. In fact, the U.S. Army secret services have had close ties with American filmmakers for several decades. The movie Top Gun, for instance, was filmed with the support and approval of the U.S. Army. There is even a special bureau, the Film Liaison Office, that oversees these issues for the Pentagon and the Capitol. It has a clear mission: studying the scripts of American war movies, deciding whether to offer them support or not. 40 minute video,
Access Here