Media Control News as an Institution of Power and Social Control [Hardcover]

Media Control: News as an Institution of Power and Social Controlchallenges 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 Controlgoes 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 Controlpresents 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 Controlhelps the reader explicate how the power elite use the press and the veil of the Fourth Estate to further white ideologies and American Imperialism.

In contrast to books on modern media that examine control of media by financial elites and corporations, Gutsche's important study provides a rare look at how media collaborate with power elites in order to maintain social control. & He builds his study on theory developed by cultural studies scholars Stuart Hall and James Carey and critical studies media scholar Robert McChesney. & His analyses of the local media are helpful as a starting point for understanding the role of newspapers and radio and television stations sprinkled throughout the US.Summing Up:Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; gl32