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Will the Revolution be Televised? A Marxist analysis of the media.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
1 person is currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
John Molyneux
29 books8 followersMolyneux joined the International Socialists in Britain in 1968 after being radicalized by the antiwar movement and the revolt of that year. He became one of the Socialist Worker's Party's leading theorists and a popular speaker. He was a lecturer at the School of Art, Design, and Media, University of Portsmouth, from 1992.
During his years in Portsmouth, he was a significant influence in the city left as well as a lecturer at the polytechnic university there. He organized a number of demonstrations, including getting 12 coaches of people to the 2003 demonstration against the Iraq War, in London. In January 2009 he was arrested for organizing a peace rally of 400 people against the Israeli attacks on Gaza.
His book Marxism and the Party (1978), analyzes the revolutionary left approach to the political party and the question of the revolutionary organization. and the discussion of Marx, Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotsky, and Gramsci. In 1981 he published Leon Trotsky’s Theory of Revolution (1981), which critically explored Trotsky’s weaknesses and strengths. What is the Real Marxist Tradition? (1983/85) started life as a long article and was later published as a short book and is perhaps his most widely read publication.
He wrote a weekly column, “The ABCs of Marxism,” published in Socialist Worker (UK) for almost 15 years some of which were collected into a book Arguments for Revolutionary Socialism (1987) and a pamphlet on The Future Socialist Society (1987).
After he moved to Ireland he edited the Irish Marxist Review and contributed to many issues.
In 2006, he set up a blog where he "writes mainly about Marxist theory and art". He remained fascinated by this issue. His book The Point Is to Change It! was included in a display at the Tate Liverpool's exhibition Art turning Left (2013) showing the role that art plays in changing society.
In October 2020, he hosted the podcast Introduction to Marx/Marxism, which was described as "a series of short introductions to the ideas of Marx/Marxism".
In his last years, Molyneux also became involved in building an eco-socialist response to the climate crisis. He was one of the founders of the Global Ecosocialist Network.
He once wrote an article in the SWP's Internal Bulletin called "Democracy in the SWP", which argued that, though the SWP is democratic, it needs to be more so, prompting the Weekly Worker, the organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) to call him a "loyal rebel". Molyneux remained a member of the loyal opposition in the SWP staying with the organization in 2012-13 when the SWP faced a major crisis in the wake of an accusation of rape against a leading member.
- Wikipedia
During his years in Portsmouth, he was a significant influence in the city left as well as a lecturer at the polytechnic university there. He organized a number of demonstrations, including getting 12 coaches of people to the 2003 demonstration against the Iraq War, in London. In January 2009 he was arrested for organizing a peace rally of 400 people against the Israeli attacks on Gaza.
His book Marxism and the Party (1978), analyzes the revolutionary left approach to the political party and the question of the revolutionary organization. and the discussion of Marx, Luxemburg, Lenin, Trotsky, and Gramsci. In 1981 he published Leon Trotsky’s Theory of Revolution (1981), which critically explored Trotsky’s weaknesses and strengths. What is the Real Marxist Tradition? (1983/85) started life as a long article and was later published as a short book and is perhaps his most widely read publication.
He wrote a weekly column, “The ABCs of Marxism,” published in Socialist Worker (UK) for almost 15 years some of which were collected into a book Arguments for Revolutionary Socialism (1987) and a pamphlet on The Future Socialist Society (1987).
After he moved to Ireland he edited the Irish Marxist Review and contributed to many issues.
In 2006, he set up a blog where he "writes mainly about Marxist theory and art". He remained fascinated by this issue. His book The Point Is to Change It! was included in a display at the Tate Liverpool's exhibition Art turning Left (2013) showing the role that art plays in changing society.
In October 2020, he hosted the podcast Introduction to Marx/Marxism, which was described as "a series of short introductions to the ideas of Marx/Marxism".
In his last years, Molyneux also became involved in building an eco-socialist response to the climate crisis. He was one of the founders of the Global Ecosocialist Network.
He once wrote an article in the SWP's Internal Bulletin called "Democracy in the SWP", which argued that, though the SWP is democratic, it needs to be more so, prompting the Weekly Worker, the organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) to call him a "loyal rebel". Molyneux remained a member of the loyal opposition in the SWP staying with the organization in 2012-13 when the SWP faced a major crisis in the wake of an accusation of rape against a leading member.
- Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 22, 2012
Noam Chomsky, in Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies said "my personal feeling is that citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of intellectual self defense to protect themselves from manipulation and control..." and i and apparently molyneux could not agree more. i found this book to be very useful and wish only i had read it sooner. if you have been engaged with marxism and marxist thought and analysis for awhile much of this will be known to you but the power comes in how succinct all the arguments are. there is an irritating phenomenon that molyneux points out where arguments that defend the status quo are very simple and 'common sense-ical' while those that challenge them are much more complex. if you are like me i am sure you have had a conversation where you tried to explain something to someone and they said 'no i don't think that sounds right...' and fell back on some common sense type argument. molyneux uncovers the role and generation of common sense ideas and how to media plays a part in that. he also discusses reality shows and the idea that people want this stuff and tv is just giving to them what they are clamoring for - again a complicated argument to unpack. this review isn't very good but the book is. read it if you are interested in the role of the media or read it to feel good about being irritated by those common sense-ers that think they know everything...
May 31, 2019
Good Marxist analysis of how the media works, presented in clear language. Most importantly, it makes clear that however strong the media can be, it isn't all powerful - there are ways we can fight back.
January 11, 2015
The book delivers what it promises: to introduce a Marxist approach to mass media. It's not an introduction--critical or otherwise--to media per se. The lack of substance in terms of social media is unfortunate but the point gets across.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews