Communication Revolution: Critical Junctures and the Future of Media

by Robert W. McChesney

In Communication Revolution ―both a sharp and cogent analysis of the history of media studies and a clarion call for citizen participation―Robert McChesney argues that with the Internet and wireless technology set to overtake traditional media, we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build a more egalitarian communication system. He brilliantly shows how communication scholarship has failed to rise to the challenge of conceiving what this system might look like, leaving it to the burgeoning media reform movement (in which he has been a key player) to fill the vision vacuum. Bringing both his authoritative analysis and unparalleled historical knowledge to bear on an urgent issue of our time, McChesney challenges us to transform the way we think about media. As Noam Chomsky has said, "Robert McChesney's work has been of extraordinary importance. . . . It should be read with care and concern by people who care about freedom and basic rights."

Genres: Nonfiction

301 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2007

About the author

Robert Waterman McChesney was an American professor notable in the history and political economy of communications, and the role media play in democratic and capitalist societies. He was the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He co-founded the Free Press, a national media reform organization. From 2002 to 2012, he hosted Media Matters, a weekly radio program every Sunday afternoon on WILL (AM), Illinois Public Media radio.

Reviews

[Alhadi Kareem]

Please I want to read the book

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really did like this book. McChesney does a good job of presenting some complex technical problems with ease, making this book perfect for anyone who is interested in the current state of the media but is not a communications major.

Parts of the book read as though he's directing you to read other people's work. While there is nothing necessarily wrong with that (I have certainly increased my reading list), I bought this book for a reason. I want to hear what he has to say not be told that this list of people whom I have not heard of were influential to him.

McChesney is honest, inviting and powerful with explaining the urgency of our current critical juncture.

This book is certainly for anyone who has an interest in media, advertising, politics, community broadcasting, the Internet, Net Neutrality or anything related to politics and communication systems.