Robert W. McChesney

This article is about the media studies scholar. For other uses, see Robert McChesney.

Robert W. McChesney
Bob McChesney
Born	Robert Waterman McChesney (1952-12-22) December 22, 1952 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Alma mater	The Evergreen State College University of Washington
Occupation	Professor, author, activist, journalist
Employer	University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Known for	Media criticism History and political economy of mass communication
Spouse(s)	Inger Stole
Website	robertmcchesney.org

Robert Waterman McChesney (born December 22, 1952) is an American professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign as the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication. He specializes in the history and political economy of communication, and the role media play in democratic and capitalist societies. He co-founded Free Press, a national media reform organization. From 2002–12, he hosted “Media Matters” weekly radio program every Sunday afternoon on WILL-AM radio.

Background and education

McChesney was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Samuel Parker McChesney, an advertising salesman for This Week Magazine, and Edna Margaret "Meg" (née McCorkle) McChesney, a nurse. He attended The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where he studied history and political economy. After college, he worked as a sports stringer for United Press International (UPI), published a weekly newspaper, and in 1979 was the founding publisher of The Rocket, a Seattle-based rock magazine which chronicled the birth of the Seattle rock scene of the late 1980s and 1990s.

Views

American media

McChesney posits that "deregulated media" is a misnomer, that the media are a government sanctioned oligopoly, owned by a few highly profitable corporate entities. They have legislative influence and control news coverage, to distort public understanding of media issues.

Healthy Journalism

McChesney's article 'Farewell To Journalism' emphasizes that the current US media system is deteriorating, and that this freefall threatens the democratic system itself. Within the article he highlights what scholars believe to be the key characteristics of healthy journalism. "It is necessary...that the media system as a whole makes such journalism a realistic expectation for the citizenry."

Bibliography

• Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times. New Press. 2 June 1999. ISBN 978-1-62097-070-6. 
• Communication Revolution: Critical Junctures and the Future of Media. New York: The New Press, 2007. ISBN 9781595582072
• The Political Economy of Media: Enduring Issues, Emerging Dilemmas. NYU Press. 1 May 2008. ISBN 978-1-58367-161-0. 
• The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again (with John Nichols). New York: Nation Books, 2010. ISBN 9781568586052
• John Bellamy Foster; Robert W. McChesney (1 September 2012). The Endless Crisis: How Monopoly-Finance Capital Produces Stagnation and Upheaval from the USA to China. NYU Press. ISBN 978-1-58367-314-0. 
• John Nichols; Robert Waterman McChesney (2013). Dollarocracy: How Billionaires Are Buying Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It. Nation Books. ISBN 978-1-56858-711-0. 
• Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy. New Press. 5 March 2013. ISBN 978-1-59558-891-3. 
• Blowing the Roof Off the Twenty-First Century: Media, Politics, and the Struggle for Post-Capitalist Democracy. NYU Press. 22 October 2014. ISBN 978-1-58367-478-9.  Excerpt
• People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy, 2016, ISBN 9781568585215
• Edward Herrmann; Robert W. McChesney (27 August 2001). Global Media: The New Missionaries of Global Capitalism. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-8264-5819-3. 

See also

• Fourth Estate
• Fifth Estate

External links

• Robert W. McChesney bibliography
• Micha Odenheimer, "Your Free Internet is in Danger", Interview with Professor Robert W. McChesney at acheret.co.il
• Robert McChesney at the Internet Movie Database