News Sources

Mainstream MediaForeign Media

Alternative Press

LIBS100Word of the Day

• What is a Plasma Display (as in a TV)?

• A type of flat-panel display that works by sandwiching a neon/xenon gas mixture between two sealed glass plates with parallel electrodes deposited on their surfaces. The plates are sealed so that the electrodes form right angles, creating pixels. When a voltage pulse passes between two electrodes, the gas breaks down and produces weakly ionized plasma, which emits UV radiation. The UV radiation activates color phosphors and visible light is emitted from each pixel.

www.webopedia.com

Mainstream Media (U.S.)

• Often funded through advertising• Focuses on general interest items• Often (though not always)

consistent with majority viewpoint• Sometimes becomes

“infotainment” (news must be interesting/entertaining)

Mainstream Media Changes

• Original role

– To educate and inform citizens

• Current role

– Entertainment

– To educate and inform citizens

Why did the media change it’s focus??

• Decreased attention span of viewers

• Increased competition from internet, movies, video games

• 24-hour news stations have to fill time somehow

Mainstream Media Sources

• CNN (http://www.cnn.com) – alleged liberal • NPR (http://www.npr.org) – alleged liberal • Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/) –

alleged conservative • MSN (http://www.msn.com) – alleged

conservative • New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/)

– both sides have claimed it’s biased!

Media concentration

• 20,000 publishers in US, yet 2% produce 75% of the output

• Six giant media conglomerates - most worldwide media (TV, Movies, Press) controlled by one of six corporations

Six big sisters

• Murdoch-FoxTV-HarperCollins-WeeklyStandard-NYPost-LondonTimes-DirecTV

• GE-NBC-Universal-Vivendi• TimeWarner-CNN-AOL• Disney-ABC-ESPN• Comcast• Viacom-CBS-MTV (according to William Safire

this is why we had our sexiest Superbowl ever)

Foreign Media

• Gives different perspective on issues, sometimes more realistic/objective

• Often provides context or connections that domestic news sources don’t

Excellent Foreign News Sources

• Guardian (British): http://www.guardian.co.uk

• GlobalVision (international): http://www.gvnews.net/html/index.shtml

• Middle Eastern newspaper and news sites: http://www.world-newspapers.com/east.html

Alternative Press

• Definition? – Often self-defined

– Major goal is not maximizing profit

– “Non-corporate”

• Includes the alternative and independent press; ethnic and native presses; “non-mainstream”

Alternative Media

• Funded by advertising or donations (see www.altpr.org)

• Focuses on issues of more specific interest (environment, politics, social justice, minority issues)

• Covers events that the mainstream media ignores

Alternative Media

• Covers major events but with a different perspective

• Makes connections that the mainstream media does not

• Reflects minority opinions of those not in power

Why Is Alternative Media Important?

• Freedom of Speech – The Discovery of Truth– The more opinions and facts are out

there, the more likely the truth is to be discovered

• Not financially tied to big businesses or government

Why Is Alternative Media Important?

• Provides broader perspective

• Media mergers mean that most mainstream news outlets are owned by the same company = same news “product”

Example – Terry Schiavo• Brain damaged woman’s feeding tube

removed• Mainstream media

– Focuses on Terry herself (narrow view)– Focuses on dramatic life/death issue

• Alternative media– Alleged Bush inconsistencies (

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/03/con05097.html)

– Points out perceived hypocrisy (http://adbusters.org/blogs/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18&Itemid=41 )

– Presents a more complex, broader view (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/22/1529259 )

Example – Iraq War

• http://www.altpr.org/ book review of “102 Minutes” about 9/11: “…made me wish we had similar books about attacks in other countries. After all, there are far more victims OF America than victims IN America.”

• Reviewer compares 9/11 to US bombing of Fallujah, NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, others

• You may agree or disagree – the important thing is that it shows you an alternative viewpoint

Excellent Alternative News Sources

• AlterNet: http://www.alternet.org/• Utne Reader: http://www.utne.com/• Mother Jones:

http://www.motherjones.com/• Buzzflash: http://buzzflash.com/• Adbusters: http://adbusters.org• Democracy Now:

http://www.democracynow.org/

Excellent Alternative News Sources

• Eat the State: http://www.eatthestate.org/

• Media Channel: http://www.mediachannel.org/

• The Nation – list of alternative media: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020107&s=letter

• Project Censored: http://www.projectcensored.org/

• AltPress: http://www.altpr.org/

Summary

• Every news source has a bias

• Some biases are stronger than others

• An information literate person can evaluate news and looks for information in more than one source.

Assignment – Journal Entry #9

Go to Project Censored’s Top 25 Censored Stories (http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2005/index.html). Choose one story and explain

(1) What was the story (2) Why do you think the mainstream

media didn't cover it? (3) Do you think it's an important issue

that should have been covered? Why or why not?