The Cronenberg Approach
The idea of using literary texts to illuminate film is not new. But there remains a stubborn Leavisite tendency that implicitly values literary writings as superior on the grounds of being the more established art form. Mark Browning examines Canadian director David Cronenberg’s works in this context.
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The Church and Oprah
At the heart of a YouTube-led controversy stands Oprah Winfrey, one of the world’s most popular media figures, charged with threatening Christianity. In this article which first appeared in ReligionDispatches, Gary Laderman says there’s every reason to be concerned about the Church of Oprah. Because it’s part of a larger competing religious culture: celebrity worship.
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Online (+ print) = future
Print will fall and online will rise and rise. In five years most journalists will produce multi-media content. But quality of journalism may not improve… What 700 editors and newspaper executives across 120 countries said in the second Newsroom Barometer Survey.
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The road not taken
Could the Iraq war have been prevented had the American media asked the right questions? How do conservative media commentators frame the actions of different religious communities? Does the media pay due attention to history? Mike Ghouse reflects on the political impact of mainstream media decisions.
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How the media fails India
Media is big business in India. But it largely ignores the voting classes, catering not to the 700 million poor Indians who vote but to the middle class of 300 million who ask ‘Why should I vote?’ Fulbright scholar James Mutti calls for a new model.
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Making media matter
The media has a crucial role in ensuring constitutionalism, pluralism, rule of law, and rights in every democratic society. Would it serve this cause best by an ‘objective’ approach? What the media should do is not chase after hypocritical objectivity, writes Professor Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, but be self-aware and ‘socially engaged’.
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Missing Marx
Much of today’s media research is a pale imitation of earlier work, or an awkward marriage of distinct approaches, eager not to offend. Critical conversations tend to be trivial and a paralysing sense of caution prevails. David McQueen on how neo-liberal ‘reformers’ are picking at the very foundations of media scholarship.
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The wisdom of the owls
In the second part of a series on the challenging emotional situations journalists face, Gavin Rees examines the techniques seasoned reporters use to interview people in distress.
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