Archive | December, 2002

Printed Ephemera — Original American Indymedia

We see them all the time: posters, flyers, pamphlets, catalogs. But how much notice do we take? Often, they only require a few moments attention, and yet so much about a time and place is communicated. And unlike our tradition conception of the mass media and press, the production of these forms of printed communication has been quite accessible to a broad range of people.

The Library of Congress has over 10,000 items from its Printed Ephemera collection on-line at An American Time Capsule; Three Centuries of Broadsides and Printed Ephemera.

Continue Reading

Cogent Media Analysis in Service of Liberal Whining

“Media critic” Neal Gabler submits a reasoned analysis that the true split in the media is not liberal/left vs. conservative/right, but rather the difference

“between two entirely different journalistic mind-sets: those who believe in advocacy, and those who believe in objectivity — or, at the very least, in the appearance of objectivity.”


Unfortunately, for all the clear-headed analysis in this piece, by the end it appears that Gabler’s intent is to pine away for the restoration of objectivity as the journalistic ideal….

It’s the cry of the self-hating liberal who sniffs that conservatives dominate cable news because “conservatism is much more lively than liberalism and that much more entertaining. ”

Cry me a river, Neal. If liberalism is too damn boring, only liberals are to blame. …

The myth of objectivity keeps the press in power, because it dictates that only the fair presentation of “both sides of the story” can make serious claims to truth. It dictates that truth isn’t true until it’s mediated back to us — it didn’t happen unless the New York Times reported it.

Independent media argues for a different reality, where individuals and groups attempt to communicate their own truths, unfettered by the homogenizing force of objective reporting. …

Continue Reading

Powered by WordPress. Designed by Woo Themes