What is now called "globalization" would not be possible without mass media. Communication through modern technology has the potential to spread democracy, but corporate control of media production simultaneously threatens the ability of citizens to receive unbiased news and to have their own messages heard. How much choice and freedom do we really have when fewer than 8 multi-national companies control more than 80% of the world's newspapers, TV and radio stations, publishing houses, film studios and distributors, and music companies? These resources will help you understand these important issues.

Organizations, Resources & Programs (this target symbol means the organization sponsors a media activism campaign you can join)
or jump down the page to Speakers & Consultants; Other Online Resources)

Action Coalition for Media Education ACME links media educators, health advocates, media reformers, independent media makers, community organizers and others. Goals include supporting curriculum development, advocating independent media-making, and supporting media reform efforts.

Adbusters Media Foundation "We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century. "

The American Journalism Review has many good articles on media ownership and democracy issues, including this one on the Congressional lobbying power and influence of the American broadcast industry.

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is a "national coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups and concerned parents who counter the harmful effects of marketing to children through action, advocacy, education, research, and collaboration."

Center for International Media Action was created "as an information-exchange space for groups using advocacy and activism to change the media system. The focus is on organizations and events, building our strategies and learning from each other." While CIMA is based in the U.S. , and this is our primary frame of reference for the material on this site, we do work in a global context...." The site is about the work of advocacy, and provides excellent resources for non-profits to learn how to strengthen themselves and their programs, fund-raising, organizing, collaborating, etc. Calendar of events, Organizers' Toolkit and more.

The Center for Media and Democracy  works to strengthen democracy by promoting media that are "of, by and for the people." Projects include PR Watch, a quarterly investigative journal; five books by CMD staff; Spin of the Day, which offers daily reporting on spin and propaganda in the news; and SourceWatch, a wiki-based investigative journalism resource to which anyone, including you, can contribute.

Center for Media Literacy CML’s Reading Room has excellent articles on issues related to news, politics, democracy and more. Also, utilizing its MediaLit Kit framework, the Center for Media Literacy "provides curricula, professional development, implementation and research to prepare educators, parents and children with the media literacy skills necessary to be enlightened, engaged citizens of a global media culture."

The Columbia Journalism Review has information on Who Owns What (as does Free Press, see below) plus timelines on the growth of six mega-media corporations.

Commercial Alert . Founded by Ralph Nader and Gary Ruskin, Commercial Alert's mission is "to keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy." This group does a great job shining the spotlight on egregious corporate attempts to market to children and to commercialize our schools and other public institutions.

FAIR, the national media watch group, has been "offering well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. We work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints." The FAIR website archives the insightful weekly syndicated column on media and politics written by FAIR associate Norman Solomon , deemed by Utne Reader   "one of the fiercest and most articulate media critics around."

Free Press.   This very important group, co-founded by author and professor Robert McChesney and writer John Nichols, is a national non-profit media reform organization working to open, democratize and ignite media policy debates. They are doing an excellent job in making media a bona fide issue in America — through innovative grassroots and communications strategies and working with partner organizations.  The website, which includes over 100 media reform organizations, daily updated news, action alerts, calendar, list serv, index, and library, is "intended to serve as a resource for your organizing work and a comprehensive entrypoint for activists."

HearUsNow.org,   a project of Consumers Union (publishers of Consumer Reports magazine) "follows Consumers Union's long tradition of promoting a fair and just marketplace by empowering consumers to fight for better and more affordable telephone, cable and Internet services or equipment.  By focusing on major media, technology and communications issues and emphasizing local stories, HearUsNow.org will help explain increasingly complex issues and the connections between these issues, underscore what's at stake, and offer ways to make improvements." Outstanding site with many great resources.

Internews® Network supports open media worldwide, fosters independent media in emerging democracies, produces innovative television and radio programming and Internet content, and uses the media to reduce conflict within and between countries.

The Knight Foundation funds and publishes many surveys and reports to "transform journalism and communities." A recent survey revealed the very scary finding that many American high school students think the U.S. press has "too many freedoms." Their Research & Publications section's titles includ Young People and News, An Imperative to Innovate (on the need for media development assistance to promote democracy in developing nations) and The Internet and the Threat it Poses to Local Media

Lliving Earth Television, which calls itself, "Voices of Our World in All its Diversity," supports television programming that uses the medium as a way to connect the world's peoples to each other and help them learn about other cultures, rather than as a channel for corporate media messages.

Media Access Project is a "non-profit, public interest law firm which promotes the public's First Amendment right to hear and be heard on the electronic media of today and tomorrow."

Media Channel calls itself a "media issues supersite, featuring criticism, breaking news, and investigative reporting from hundreds of organizations worldwide. As the media watch the world, we watch the media." Resources include thematic special reports, action toolkits, an indexed directory of hundreds of affiliated groups and a search engine constituting the single largest online media-issues database. Sign up for four different e-newsletters on media-related topics.

Media Education Foundation Produces and distributes videos/DVDs for older teens, college-age and adults, on topics not usually covered in K-12 materials, including gender roles and sexism in the media, global corporatization of media, commercialism and consumer culture, media portrayals of race and sexual orientation, media violence, and alternative viewpoints.

The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation's book, Patriotism, Democracy and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad, includes "media policies" as one of America's issue areas that must be connected to everything else in order to fix what's not working in the U.S. and to move the country forward in the world community.

Project Censored "Explores and publicize the extent of censorship in our society by locating stories about significant issues of which the public should be aware, but is not, or one reason or another."

Project Think Different "supports a new pop culture that's about human beings, not dollar bills. A pop culture where it’s hip to be engaged, where the new cool is being true to your self, your community, and your world. We are musicians, video and film producers, directors, spoken word artists, educators, community activists, and allied organizations—and we are you. If you’re sick of what’s being dished out and tired of waiting for something to change—join us. We’re making change happen!" This is a Boston, Mass.-based group that uses music, film, and video, to " create, fine-tune and disseminate new cultural messages that promote positive action."

Reporters Without Borders helps restore people's right to be informed in countries where press freedom is threatened, and supports journalists who are persecuted for doing their job.

TV Turn-Off Network    This excellent non-profit "encourages children and adults to watch much less television in order to promote healthier lives and communities." As sponsors of the nationwide "TV Turn-Off Week" held nationally in thousands of schools, the group, formerly named "TV-Free America," has materials for teachers, schools and parents that help families learn the benefits of watching less TV and to find alternative activities that promote stronger families and happier children.

WITNESS: See It, Film It, Change It places video cameras in the hands of local human rights defenders and trains them to use the technology, along with computers and editing software, in the fight for human rights. \

Voice of the Shuttle is a website project at the University of California, Santa Barbara with hundreds of links to media-related topics, including censorship and telecom issues.

Speakers. trainers and curriculum consultants

Visit the Media Literacy Speakers Bureau and search for a speaker on media activism and advocacy, ownership issues, etc.

BobMcCannon.org Bob McCannon is a co-founder of the Action Coalition for Media Education and was the executive director of the New Mexico Media Literacy Project from 1983 to 2005. Bob offers keynotes, workshops, presentations and in-services; you can subscribe to his bi-monthly newseltter on his website.

JeanKilbourne.com Author ( Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel ), video lecturer ( Slim Hopes: Advertising and the Obsession with Thinness and Killing Me Softly ) and educator Jean Kilbourne , a popular speaker on college campuses, is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on alcohol and tobacco advertising and the image of women in advertising.

Media Literacy for Prevention, Critical Thinking, Self-Esteem. The site for Dr. Peter DeBenedittis, "intended to create a cultural revolution around media." Sign up for his e-zine.

RobertMcChesney.com  Robert W. McChesney 's recent books include Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times , and  It's the Media, Stupid! A research professor in the Institute of Communications Research and the Graduate School of Information and Library Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, McChesney is co-founder of Free Press, a new and important group fighting for media democracy in the United States.

SutJhally.com The author of 4 books and numerous scholarly and popular articles, Sut Jhally is one of the world's leading experts on advertising and media studies. He is also a terrific public speaker and teacher. Jhally is well known on college campuses through his controversial and award-winning film Dreamworlds: Desire/Sex/Power in Music Video . He's the founder and executive director of The Media Education Foundation (see above); his films include The Date-Rape Backlash ; Advertising and the End of the World ; Tough Guise - Violence, the Media and the Crisis in Masculinity and more.

Other Online Resources

If you're interested in issues related to multinational corporations and media, subscribe to Focus on the Corporation , a weekly newsletter covering  topics (including how these issues are -- or are not -- reported in the media) such as "globalization and corporate power; double standards which excuse corporations for behavior (e.g., causing injury, accepting welfare) widely considered criminal or shameful when done by individuals; industry-wide efforts to escape regulation, silence critics, or consolidate business among a few companies; and more."

Media Bloggers Association says "Media bloggers play a valuable role by holding media organizations accountable for their reporting, commenting on the current and future state of the media, supplementing local media coverage, and reporting on the media industry." Note that "Media Bloggers Association believes in the independence and freedom of expression of its members and is not concerned with issues of editorial integrity, journalistic fairness or objectivity of members...."