HOME | CRITIQUE THE MEDIA | NEW MEDIA LECTURE HALL | MEDIA CRITIC | MEDIA CULTURE UPDATES

Quick Clicks

Cable Channels | Events and Chat Areas | Criticism


When cable emerged to challenge traditional broadcasting in the 1970's, expectations were high, not unlike today's expectations for the information highway... Offering new competition cable's increased channel capacity provided the promise of access. With more channels, it was believed that access on cable would create vibrant debates, allowing ordinary citizens to participate in democracy and even create their own programs. For the most part, though, cable has followed the one-way broadcast model: Cable operators choose the programming from a few service providers with little input from citizens and consumers.

In the broadest sense the development of cable has always posed a contradiction. On one hand, cable has dramatically increased the number of channels and offered previously unserved groups the opportunity to address their particular issues on television. On the other hand, cable has undermined the network era during which television worked as a kind of social adhesive, giving most of the population a common bond. a set of shared programs. The concern remains: Does the onslaught of cable and developments such as the Internet create a fragmented culture in which individuals pursue their narrow personal agendas at the expense of larger social concerns....

New technologies have the capacity, of course, to simultaneously bring us together in cyberspace and isolate us physically from one another. Another large question faces democracies in which the control of communication rests increasingly in the hands of a few giant media corporations.. and as with the Internet, the gulf between the information rich and the information poor remains wide, increasing concerns about who will have access to the cable and other new media technologies.

Cable Channels

Below are a number of Web sites from various Cable Channels. The Web sites reflect the content of the channels programming, for example, ESPN focuses on Sports; CNN updates their site with breaking headlines; Discovery supplements their channels (animal planet and the Learning Channel with information on science, nature History, exploration and science; and MTV includes information on their programming, recent releases and tours and so forth.

While Cable channels have more narrowly defined audiences than the networks and have designed the content of their web sites to reflect that audience, the content of these web sites, too, seems to be mostly self-promotional.

AMC (American Movie Classics)

Arts & Entertainment (also The History Channel)

CNN

Discovery Channel Online (also the Learning Channel and Animal Planet)

ESPN (also ESPN2, ESPNEWS)

Home Box Office

Lifetime

MSNBC

MTV (also Nickelodeon, VH-1, Comedy Central)

Turner Broadcasting Systems (CNN, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies)

Bravo

Events and Chat Areas

Several browsers and online services offer special events or opportunities to enter into a "live" conversation with someone in the media: an entertainer, writer, producer, or newsmaker, for example. Most services and browsers also offer bulletin boards where you can post comments or pose questions on a specific topic or show, and chat areas where you can enter into live conversations with other people from around the world in a discussion of news events, specific shows (Seinfeld, X-Files and Star Trek, for example) or the afternoon soaps. There are also hundreds of newsgroups and mailing lists/listservs that bring people together to talk about common interests.

Some of these include:

Criticism

Criticism of the media is nothing new, and those groups who have long been critical of what we see in television programming--particularly the news--have Web sites as well. For additional resources see Media Ethics.

  • The FCC For the latest in rulings from the FCC or for comments from the commissioners.

  • Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) FAIR is the national media watch group which offers well-documented criticism in an effort to correct bias and imbalance. FAIR publishes the magazine EXTRA!, the radio show CounterSpin, and the syndicated column Media Beat, by Norman Solomon.

  • Accuracy in Media (AIM) AIM investigates complaints of media misdeeds and works for higher standards in reporting. The Web site includes articles from their bi-weekly publication.

  • Media Alliance A nonprofit organization which works to promote fairness and accuracy in the media. They also offer classes in an array of media diciplines and post job openings.

  • Media Watchdog A collection of electronic resources related to media accuracy and censorship.

  • Also look for magazines which feature articles critical of the media in general and television in particular.
    • MediaCulture Review A compendium of the best features, commentary, and criticism from the alternative press and elsewhere on media, technology, and culture.
    • HotWired MagazineGo to the Synapse section of the site, and bring along the latest browser version you can find. Look especially for Jon Katz on how the media covers Internet news (before Synapse, his column was called "Media Rant").
    • Slate
    • Feed Magazine
    • Premier Magazine

  • Visit John Labovitz's E-ZINE LIST to browse through intenet e-zines listed in the television and media categories.