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Robert W. McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author, most recently, of Digital Disconnect (The New Press) and a co-author, with John Nichols, of Tragedy and Farce and the award-winning Dollarocracy. He lives in Champaign, Illinois, and Madison, Wisconsin.

In the United States and much of the world there is a palpable depression about the prospect of overcoming the downward spiral created by the tyranny of wealth and privilege and establishing a truly democratic and sustainable society. It threatens to become self-fulfilling. In this trailblazing new book, award-winning author Robert W. McChesney argues that the weight of the present is blinding people to the changing nature and the tremendous possibilities of the historical moment we inhabit. In Blowing the Roof Off the Twenty-First Century, he uses a sophisticated political economic analysis t

In this paper, the author looks at the problems facing progressives and those on the political left in the US in participating in political analysis and debate in mainstream journalism and the news media. He focuses on radio broadcasting, as this is where much of political discussion takes place in the US. Radio broadcasting is the least expensive of the media for production and reception, is ubiquitous, has adapted itself to the Internet, and is uniquely suited for locally based programming. He leaves aside the matter of the Internet, as this is an issue he addresses in detail elsewhere; while the digital revolution is of indubitable importance, it does not alter my basic argument appreciably. He also stays away from television, cable TV news networks in particular. While those channels are important, they too do not affect my core points. He looks specifically at his own experience hosting a weekly public affairs program on a National Public Radio-affiliated radio station in Illinois from 2002-2012. Adapted from the source document.

The contemporary media reform movement exploded into prominence in the US in 2003 as a response to the effort by the Bush Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to weaken media ownership regulations. Three million people signed petitions opposing the rules changes, many of whom were fresh from the antiwar movement and who were appalled by the idea that the same media conglomerates that assisted in the propaganda campaign for the Iraq invasion might be able to gobble up what remained of independent media. In this political-economic environment it is imperative that activists of all stripes speak boldly and truthfully about the problems of their times and the need for radical change. If activists assume radical change is impossible and deem it unmentionable -- not because it is wrong but because the entrenched forces are so powerful that to challenge them might undermine short-term legitimacy -- by people's very actions they increase the likelihood it will be impossible. Adapted from the source document.

On the brink of the 2012 presidential election, and without considering that electoral contest itself, it is useful to comment on the state of U.S. democracy. The most striking lesson from contemporary U.S. election campaigns is how vast and growing the distance is between the rhetoric and pronouncements of the politicians and pundits and the actual deepening, immense, and largely ignored problems that afflict the people of the United States. The trillion dollars spent annually on militarism and war is off-limits to public review and debate. Likewise the corporate control of the economy, and the government itself, gets barely a nod. Stagnation, the class structure, growing poverty, and collapsing social services are mostly a given, except for the usual meaningless drivel candidates say to get votes. The billions spent (often by billionaires) on dubious and manipulative advertisements - rivaled for idiocy only by what remains of "news" media campaign coverage - serve primarily to insult the intelligence of sentient beings. Mainstream politics seem increasingly irrelevant to the real problems the nation faces; or, perhaps more accurately, mainstream politics is a major contributing factor to the real problems the nation faces. Adapted from the source document.