Big Media, Big Money

Cultural Texts and Political Economics

By (author) Ronald V. Bettig, Jeanne Lynn Hall

Publication date:

04 May 2012

Length of book:

384 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442204287

Big Media, Big Money is a lively and scathing critique of the contemporary communications industry, examining how media ownership and the profit-making motive affect the messages we receive in alarming ways. Through close readings of recent news events and critical examination of corporate influence, Bettig and Hall conclude that current interconnections among media, big business, government, and education pose a serious threat to democratic communications. The second edition includes three new chapters, covering the contemporary Hollywood film industry; the changing landscape of the music industry; and “ad creep,” the proliferation of advertising into previously ad-free venues such as schools and children’s television programming.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Beat the Press
Chapter 2 Media Merger Mania: Concentration in the Media Industry
Chapter 3 The Hollywood Film Industry: Do We Really Need It?
Chapter 4 The Music Industry: The Payer Calls the Tune
Chapter 5 The News and Advertising Industries: All the News That Fits
Chapter 6 Ad Creep: The Commercialization of Culture
Chapter 7 The Commercialization of Education: Students for Sale
Chapter 8 Media and Democracy: Taking it to the Streets
Acknowledgments

In Big Media, Big Money, Ronald Bettig and Jeanne Hall have brought their careers' worth of experience together to produce perhaps the single best exposition of the political economy of the media that I have seen. It is a thrilling, provocative, and highly original book that weaves issues like the commercialization of education into the narrative. I recommend it unconditionally for classroom use.