Media Control: News as an Institution of Power and Social Control challenges traditional (and even some radical) perceptions of how the news works. While it’s clear that journalists don’t operate objectively – reporters don’t just cover news, but they make it – Media Control goes a step further by arguing that the cultural institution of news approaches and presents everyday information from particular and dominant cultural positions that benefit the power elite. From analysing how the press operate as police agents by conducting surveillance and instituting social order through its coverage of crime and police action to bolstering private business and neoliberal principles by covering the news through notions of boosterism, Media Control presents the news through a cultural lens. Robert E. Gutsche, Jr. introduces or advances readers’ applications of critical race theory and cultural studies scholarship to explore cultural meanings within news coverage of police action, the criminal justice system, and embedding into the news democratic values that are later used by the power elite to oppress and repress portions of the citizenry. Media Control helps the reader explicate how the power elite use the press and the veil of the Fourth Estate to further white ideologies and American Imperialism.
Robert E. Gutsche, Jr. is Senior Lecturer of Critical Digital Media Practice in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University (UK). He was Assistant Professor of journalism and digital media studies at Florida International University in Miami.
AcknowledgementsPrefaceIntroduction I. The Experience of Experiencing Power: A BeginningII. Purpose of the BookIII. Plan of the Book1. Power, Propaganda & the Purpose of NewsI. Explicating the Embassy Evacuations: The Purpose of Banal NewsII. Power: A Briefing on News as CommodityIII. Incorporating the News: Joining ‘The Power Elite’IV. Conclusion: Interpreting News as Propaganda2. Making News: Purposes, Practices & PanderingI. News as National Rhetoric: The Boston BombingII. Narratives of Journalism Studies: Politics, Profits & Media-makingIII. From Social Power to ‘Media Power’IV. Interpreting Journalism Through Levels of Analysis3. Displacement & Punishment: The Press as Place-makersI. Here is Not There: Place Ideologies in the Press II. The Power of ‘Othering’ in Press Characterizations of Place & RaceIII. News Place-making as ‘The New Jim Crow’IV. Conclusion: Media Displacement as Punishment4. News as Cultural Distraction: Controversy, Conspiracy & Collective ForgettingI. Controversy or Bust: Media Commitment to Crazy in National CrisesII. The Distraction of ‘Conspiracy Theory’: News, Fear & The Need for ProtectionIII. Militarization & Media Violence: The Warfare of Urban MemoryIV. Conclusion: Collective Forgetting & Media Control5. Normalizing Media Surveillance: Media Waiting, Watching & Shaming I. Media Waiting: Fearing South Beach’s Urban Beach WeekII. Media Watching: The Function of Media SurveillanceIII. Media Shaming: Normalizing ‘Correction’-as-ControlIV. Conclusion: Media Surveillance as Punishment 6. The Violence of Media Souseveillance: Identifying the Press as PoliceI. Police Myth: Media Adoption of Police Power II. Journalistic Information & (Questioned) Collaboration III. Controlled Monitoring as Mediated PracticeIV. Conclusion: The Virtuous Violence of Media SouseveillanceConclusion: The Myth of Being “Post-Media” & Why Americans Will Always be Media Illiterate I. Media Control: An Assessment & ReminderII. The Death of Media Literacy: The Force of Digital Distractions & CorporatizationIII. Media Socialization & Press Pacification Through Journalism EducationIV. Conclusion: Complicating Media Control’s Collective IdentityGlossaryIndex
Media Control is a rare, critical look at the power of news at a time of increased surveillance and policing. It's a must read for journalists, citizens and scholars who are concerned about the future of a free society–and their role in it.
Robert E. Gutsche, Jr., Bonnie Brennen, UK) Gutsche, Jr., Robert E. (Lancaster University, USA) Brennen, Bonnie (Marquette University, Jr. Gutsche, Robert E., Jr. Robert E. Gutsche
Robert E. Gutsche, Jr., Bonnie Brennen, UK) Gutsche, Jr., Robert E. (Lancaster University, USA) Brennen, Bonnie (Marquette University, Jr. Gutsche, Robert E., Jr. Robert E. Gutsche