http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/feed.xml International Journal of Radical Mass Media Criticism en Sat, 05 May 2007 17:26:37 GMT Mon, 1 Sept 2008 July 17:26:37 GMT http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/whenmarxistsfallout.html Sept 1, 17:26:37 GMT The radical left has suffered many defeats since the 1970s but its literary output remains prolific. In Britain alone there are still more than thirty newspapers, magazines and journals which describe themselves as Marxist. Many of these publications are wholly indispensable and unutterably irritating at one and the same time. While titles such as Socialist Worker, Socialist Appeal and Workers Power do sterling work in challenging the market orthodoxies of the age, their sectarianism can often be hair-raising. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/censorship.html July 2008 17:26:37 GMT In this paper I analyse the Canadian media’s portrayal of the retirement of Fidel Castro, announced in February, 2008. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/reviews/commrev.html June 2008 17:26:37 GMT Robert McChesney is a leading media scholar, critic, activist, and the nations most prominent researcher and writer on US media history, its policy and practice. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/reviews/lies.html June 2008 17:26:37 GMT Lies the Media Tell Us is an important book. The final main chapter alone, on the Canadian government’s clandestine role in kidnapping and deporting (while still in office) the democratically-elected president of Haiti, and the subsequent media cover-up, makes this book essential reading for all concerned with social justice, international integrity, democracy, and media performance. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/ChavezandRCTV.html June 2008 17:26:37 GMT A year has passed since Hugo Chávez's government in Venezuela withdrew the broadcast licence of RCTV, one of the country's two most popular television stations. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/reviews/flatearthnews.html May 2008 17:26:37 GMT Journalists, especially those working for newspapers, are notoriously sensitive to criticism, even from their fellow workers. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/reviews/perspectivesonglobalcultures.html May 2008 17:26:37 GMT This book is a challenging, intellectually demanding and vigorous examination of contemporary thought on globalisation. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/criticsm/P.Bounds.html May 2008 17:26:37 GMT This article examines a selection of John Berger’s theoretical writings on the media, especially those on photography and film. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/thought.html April 2008 17:26:37 GMT The International Olympic Committee (IOC) broke more than a few of its governing rules and regulations dating back to Sydney 1999 and mired in corruption scandals beginning in the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/workersareheroes.html April 2008 17:26:37 GMT It's not often that mainstream media broadcasters celebrate 'militant' and 'rebellious' activities of workers. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment.html April 2008 17:26:37 GMT This interview was conducted over the Internet between February and April 2006. Armand Mattelart is Emeritus Professor of Information and Communication Sciences at the University of Paris VIII. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/reviews/media,terrorism,theory.html April 2008 17:26:37 GMT In many ways, the current phenomenon of terrorism is a media creation. On the one hand, before the late 1960s, the media rarely employed the language of 'terrorists' and 'terrorism'. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/thought.html March 2008 17:26:37 GMT Senior editors of the British print and broadcast media struck a deal with the Ministry of Defence in late 2007 not to publicise the fact that a member of the British Royal family, Prince Harry, had joined-up with British forces currently occupying Afghanistan alongside American, French, German, Canadian and other military forces. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/thecubanquestion.html March 2008 17:26:37 GMT In an entertaining but predictably myopic piece, op-ed columnist George F. Will of the Washington Post (March 8th 2008) reflected on Fidel Castro's legacy claiming that the former Cuban leader is: 'Raging on his island heath, with nothing to celebrate except his endurance, his creativity has come down to this: He has added a category to the taxonomy of world regimes - government by costume party. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/peacejournalism.html March 2008 17:26:37 GMT Too much mainstream journalism is 'war journalism', being violence and victory-oriented, dehumanising the enemy and prioritising official sources. Richard Keeble puts the case for peace journalism by analysing a major text on the subject. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/thought.html February 2008 17:26:37 GMT On Thursday February 7th 2008 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams gave a lecture at the Royal Courts of Justice titled 'Civil and Religious Law in England: a religious perspective' that concerned integrating parts of the Islamic Sharia code into English law. Predictably, most news coverage reduced the Archbishop's lecture to meaningless sound bites and was met by a chorus of shock and anger. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/deliberationsanddereliction.html February 2008 17:26:37 GMT The technology to enable the instantaneous global transmission of pictures, sounds, and words to communicate to the viewers is getting better by leaps and bounds. But to what extent reporting is improving to satisfy the need for independent, balanced and credible information? http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/thecanadianmedia.html February 2008 17:26:37 GMT So-called 'studies' by right-wing think tanks have long provided 'evidence' for the corporate media to bash big government and extol the virtues of the private corporations which, coincidentally, fund the think tanks. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/lyingaboutlibertarians.html February 2008 17:26:37 GMT One of the more interesting candidates in the current round of presidential primaries in the USA is Congressman Ron Paul, who sits for Texas's 14th District in the House of Representatives. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/reviews/marxismandcommunicationstudies.html February 2008 17:26:37 GMT This edited volume is exactly the kind of book that I imagine would interest the readership of this journal: a book that, in the words of the opening page, aims to reassert 'how Marxism can advance the study and transformation of human communication and the social world in which it is embedded.' http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/thought.html January 2008 17:26:37 GMT The British television broadcaster Channel 4 recently screened a nightly series of programmes concerning chicken welfare, hosted by celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and featuring Jamie Oliver (also a celebrity chef). http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/politicalscience.html January 2008 17:26:37 GMT For an adjunct professor in a Danish business school, Bjørn Lomborg purports to know a lot about the environment: he's made a career out of denying climate change; that's why he's been sponsored by the Fraser Institute, a right-wing business lobby group, on another Canadian speaking tour. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/twentyyears.html January 2008 17:26:37 GMT 2008 marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. http://www.fifth-estate-online.co.uk/comment/irandebate.html January 2008 17:26:37 GMT Holding a debate on Iran is timely but, instead of moving in circles or engaging in rhetoric producing heat, the exchanges should instead generate light, and facilitate clarity.