Journalism Issues

NOTES ON THE FILM:
"Orwell Rolls in his Grave"
showing in .Issues in Journalism. class at MCLA

Thurs., Nov. 17 / Tues., Nov. 22

Documentary filmmaker Robert Kane Pappas presents an argument for the
theory that America is under an Orwellian watch with the rise of
prominence of the right-wing politics which Pappas suggests has been aided
by the mainstream media. Pappas interviews a string of commentators, many
identified with left causes, to make his argument. As you watch the film,
please make notes of:

· His consideration of journalism issues we we have discussed.
· Places where his point of view is obvious
· Places where you think he fails to present alternative points of view
· Is the film objective, fair, balance in terms of the way Rosenstiel and Kovach use those words? Should it be?

GENERAL SITE FOR FILM:
http://www.orwellrollsinhisgrave.com/

Pappas bio:
http://www.orwellrollsinhisgrave.com/about.htm

LISTING OF THE PEOPLE INTERVIEWED IN THE FILM:
http://www.orwellrollsinhisgrave.com/cast.htm

WikiPedia bio of George Orwell:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell

Densmore's Notes on first 30 minutes

Can they control the media, or will the Internet control that.

Corporations not answerable to the people?

What about the use of forboding music to create an atmosphere?

Question: Is there a pattern in the way stories are covered, and then
dropped?
Were they not covering stories on purpose?

Film: The Insider, about the killing of a news story.

McChesney: .How can I get one of these vegged out populations?.

Mark Crispin Miller: Goebels: What you want in a media sytem is ostensible
diversity that conceals an actual sameness.

How do you overcome the essentially pessimistic view of the film?

Miller assertion: Big media won.t cover important stories.

Why is response to inequality a drive for lower taxes on the rich?

Pappas: .Has the mainstream media become antidemocratic force in the
United States?.

McChesney: Where are the elements of a healthy journalism system: Not
debated: Need a really hard watchdog.
Miller: Have to arouse people to pay attention.

Bush assertion: .The death tax is a bad tax..

McChesney . propaganda effort by the right: Wasn.t there any lockstep on
the Democratic side?

Interviews Charles Lewis about lobbyist power.

Discussion of free airtime for candidates

Sanders, assertion: The issue is not a debate over ideas: .The issue is
whether ideas even matter..

Tony Benn: Politics presented in terms of politicians, not politics.
Third leading source for broadcast income is political ads. If you are a
politician you don.t get heard unless you do ads.

Lewis: People should be as angry about what happened to our media as the
Russians are about their media.

STOPPED AT: Jim Ryan tv anchor about 35 minutes in.

// posted by newshare @ 9:54 AM