Media, politics, and misinformation - Sept 29 at 7:30 - Indianapolis

Professor Robert Jensen will speak on "Media, politics, and misinformation in the 21st century" on Thurs. Sept. 29 at 7:30 in the Fellowship Hall of St. Luke's United Methodist Church, 100 West 86th St., Indianapolis, sponsored by Mankind Project, Indiana, in conjunction with St. Luke's Men's Ministry and Spiritual Life Center and NUVO Magazine. . In this lecture Jensen will argue that commercial journalism's structures, practices, and ideology make it increasingly difficult for journalists to perform their role, and he will advocate media reform and democratic renewal. Robert Jensen is an associate professor in the School of Journalism of the Univ. of Texas at Austin, where he teaches media law, ethics, and politics. For more info, visit indiana.mkp.org/mss
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got this in email, thought some here might be interested... I will probably go. looks interesting.

Peace

I attended this last night. It was great. This prof is THE best speaker. If you ever get a chance to hear him, you must do so. He started with a structural analysis of the media today within it's corporate framework and how that basically is a self-loopback system, closed and only bound to give a reflection of affairs as they would be viewed by the corporate framework. A tight, part and parcel analysis. Addresses the right wing assertion a 'liberal media'. He then used the Iraq War run-up and subsequent coverage as a case example to totally destroy that myth.

Hell, I bought two of his books as well, and I am thinking of purchasing them for some public libraries too. I am already halfway through his book, Citizens of the Empire. A book which he is extremely happy to recognize as a 'denounced' book. The sales really took off after it was widely denounced, he said, and he is trying to work out an arrangement to have his latest book widely denounced as well. So I am proud to be a pre-denouncement purchaser of that particular book !! You know what I did not do that was REALLY stupid? I did not get him to sign the books and he was standing right there when I bought them. Like Kurt Vonnegut says, I should have made him sign them just to prove that he really was capable of writing his name as well as the books.

Anyway this morning I found this website,
http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/interviews/151


which I would urge you to use as a start, if you are not aware of his work. I wasn't aware of his work until this lecture, myself. There are some brief mp3's there that I am downloading. They touch upon some matters he addressed within the context of his presentation last night. It will give you a flavor of what he sounds like in person. Get out to see this guy. If you have the power to book a speaker somewhere, anywhere, BOOK THIS GUY !!

Go listen to him and see if you can distill some of his thought into soundbytes useful at water cooler discussions. I think it can be done in such a way that it will produce transformative cognitive dissonance in even some of the most hard-headed freeps. Really.

edit: spellin' is HARD work.

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