Why polarisation is a media effect and what we can do about it. Populism and polarisation are structurally embedded into this social-economic symbiosis. This media hardware can and must work only with this cultural software. Excerpts from the paper. Full… Read More ›
Propaganda Model
The eternal failure of selling news
News itself is a very paradoxical commodity. It always ‘needs’ to be read; it is always in some kind of demand from below. But there is always someone from above who wants to pay for certain news to be delivered… Read More ›
Philanthropy funding of journalism: noble corruption
Foundation funding of the news media comes with a price. It quietly pushes journalism towards activism. A chapter from “Postjournalism and the death of newspapers” (2020). Funding journalism by foundations is perceived as a positive tendency because no one’s individual… Read More ›
The news media: manufacturing anger, not consent. Herman-Chomsky’s Propaganda model revised
When Herman and Chomsky described their Propaganda model, the news media were paid predominantly by advertisers and therefore tended to beautify reality. But advertising is gone. The media try to attract reader revenue. But this is a very peculiar reader… Read More ›
Martin Gurri on “Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers”
Andrey Mir’s previous book, “Human as Media”, was a little masterpiece that accounted for the large transformations brought about by the “emancipation of authorship” in the internet. His latest book, “Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers”, may be the most… Read More ›
Ownership of the media: it is not what you think it must be
Traditional media owners may still control the news media, but they no longer control the news. A chapter from “Postjournalism and the death of newspapers” (2020). Under the idea of ownership as a filter of the Propaganda model, Herman and… Read More ›
The New York Times: from “We are not American Idol” to “We are not resistance” (which is gone, too).
The news validation within a certain value system is the only remaining function of news business that might have relative use-value for readers. The need for the business to survive forces the media to shift its operational emphasis from news… Read More ›
Sourcing: news supply in the media. The switch from news to opinions and from bureaucrats to “experts”
Herman and Chomsky thought that government and corporate bureaucracies subsidized the media by supplying news, as it was rather expensive to have correspondents everywhere. And they were right. But now it costs almost nothing to get evidence from wherever you… Read More ›
Media business: why subscription mutates into membership
Increasingly, the product of journalism will be paid for not by those who consume it but by those who want it to be delivered to others. A chapter from “Postjournalism and the death of newspapers” (2020). In the media markets… Read More ›