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Video Links

• Video 1: Noam Chomsky (1992), Manufacturing Consent The Political Consent of Mass Media: The film presents and illustrates Chomsky’s and Herman’s thesis that corporate media, as profit-driven institutions, tend to serve and further the agendas of the interests of dominant, elite groups in the society. A centerpiece of the film is a long examination of the history of The New York Times’ coverage of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, which Chomsky says exemplifies the media’s unwillingness to criticize an ally of the elite

• Video 2: “The Rise of the Crisis Actor Conspiracy Movement” by VICE: Over the past 10 years, a growing online community of conspiracy theorists and hoaxers known as “truthers” has come to question the official narratives behind every mass shooting that is heavily covered by the media. A common thread in these theories is the government’s role in staging the tragedy with the help of mainstream news, to manipulate the general population.

Web Resources

• Web 1: The Newseum: Educational resources from the Washington, DC-based museum of news media.

• Web 2: Current Online: Website of the biweekly publication about public radio and television.

• Web 3: The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University: Studies news and entertainment media.

• Web 4: Columbia Journalism Review: Website of a national magazine that takes critical look at news media.

• Web 5: Media Matters for America: Progressive media analysis and criticism.

• Web 6: Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism: Research on the performance of the press, including an annual report on the State of the Media.

• Web 7: Democracy Now: An independent news organization.

Audio Links

• Audio 1: TED Radio Hour: “Attention Please”: In an age of constant information and infinite distractions, how can we pay more attention to our . . . attention? This hour, TED speakers explore the battle for our awareness during the digital age.

• Audio 2: How I Built This: “Wikipedia: Jimmy Wales”: During the dot com boom of the late 1990s, Jimmy Wales was running an Internet search company. That’s when he began to experiment with the idea of an online encyclopedia. In 2001, Wales launched Wikipedia, a website where thousands of community members could contribute, edit, and monitor content on just about anything. Today, the non-profit has stayed true to its open source roots and is the fifth most visited website in the world.