READ ALL ABOUT IT!
A bibliography on the mass media and culture. Warning: Read any three books on the list and you may end up reading another 30. However, you'll know what you're talking about. A good place to start and also a good place to learn about the latest, hot off the press.
General introduction
Alger, D.  Megamedia: How Giant Corporations Dominate Mass Media, Distort
Competition, and Endanger Democracy.  Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998.

Duncan, Kate, ed.  Liberating Alternatives: the Founding Convention of the Cultural

Environment Movement.   Hampton Press, 1999.

Gerbner, G., H.I. Mowlana, H. Schiller eds.  Invisible Crises: What Conglomerate Control

of the Media Means for America and the World.  Boulder: Westview Press, 1996.

Gruneau, Richard  and Robert Hackett, with D. Gutstein, T. Gibson & NewsWatch

Canada.  The Missing News: Filters and Blind Spots in Canada’s Press. CCPA/Garamond,  2000.

Johnston, Carla B.  Screened Out: How the Media Control Us and What We Can Do

About It.  Armonk NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2000.

McChesney, Robert W.  Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy.  New York:

Seven Stories Press (Open Media Pamphlet Series), 1997.

McChesney, Robert W.  Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in

Dubious Times.  Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999.

McChesney, Robert W. and J. Nichols.  It’s the Media, Stupid: open media pamphlet

#17.  New York: Seven Stories, 2000.

Phillips, Peter & Project Censored.  Censored 2000: the News That Didn’t Make the

News.  New York: Seven Stories Press, 2000.

Tod Gitlin.  The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making & Unmaking of

the New Left.  University of California Press, 1980.

Pilger, John. Hidden Agendas.  London: Vintage, 1998.  (See Chapter VII, The Rise and Fall

of  Popular Journalism, and Chapter VIII, The Media Age.)

Schultz, Julianne.  Reviving the Fourth Estate: Democracy, Accountability, and the

Media.  Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Winter, James. Democracy’s Oxygen: How Corporations Control the News.  Montreal:

Black Rose Books, 1997.

 

Oldies but goodies

Bagdikian, Ben.  The Media Monopoly.  Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.  
Herman, E.S. and Noam Chomsky. Manufacturing Consent: the Political Economy of

the Mass Media.  Random House Canada. 1988.

 

Extra on the Canadian scene

Barlow, Maude and James Winter.  The Big Black Book: the Essential Views of Conrad
and Amiel Black.  Toronto: Stoddart, 1997.  

Hackett, Robert and Yuezhi Zhao.  Sustaining Democracy: Journalism and the Politics

of Objectivity.  Toronto: Garamond, 1998.

Herschel Hardin.  Closed Circuits: The Sellout of Canadian Television.  Vancouver:

Douglas & McIntyre, 1986

Herschel Hardin.  A Nation unaware.  Vancouver: J.J. Douglas, 1974.  (See Part IV, The

Public Broadcasting Culture.)

Marc Raboy and Peter A. Bruck.  Communication for and against democracy.  

Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1989.

     

Stick that logo....!

Adbusters, Journal of the Mental Environment (North America’s leading counter-

commercialization magazine).  For subscription details: www.adbusters.org.
Clark, Eric.  The want makers: lifting the lid off the world advertising industry: how
they make you buy.  London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1988.
Hardin, Herschel.  The New Bureaucracy: Waste and Folly in the Private Sector.

Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1991.  See Chapter 7, The Advertising and Marketing Branch, and Chapter 8, The Sports and Culture Branch.  (Available from Herschel Hardin Associates, hhardin@vcn.bc.ca.)

Lasn, Kalle.  Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America.  New York: Eagle Brook, 1999.
Klein, Naomi.  No logo.  Toronto: A.A. Knopf Canada, 2000.
Robertson, Heather-jane.  No More Teachers, No More Books: the Commercialization 
of Canada’s Schools.  Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996.
Schudson, Michael.  Advertising, the uneasy persuasion: its dubious impact on
American Society.  Routledge, 1993.

 

Alternative media/democratization

Hazen, Don and Julie Winokur, eds.  We the Media: A Citizens’ Guide to Fighting for

    Media Democracy.  New York: The New Press, 1997.  Distributed by W.W. Norton.

Philip Lee, ed.  The Democratization of Communication.   University of Wales Press,

    1995.

Project Censored.  The Progressive Guide to Alternative Media and Activism.  New

    York: Seven Stories Press (Open Media Pamphlet Series), 1999.

Ruggiero,Greg.  Microradio & Democracy: (Low) Power to the People.  New York:

    Seven Stories Press (Open Media Pamphlet Series), 1999.

Thede, Nancy and Alain Ambrosi, eds.  Video the Changing World.  Montreal: Black

    Rose Books, 1991.

Traber, Michael and Kaarle Nordenstreng, eds.  Few Voices, Many Worlds: Towards a

    Media Reform Movement.  London: WACC, 1992.

 

The black art of public relations

Stauber, John C. and Sheldon Rampton.  Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies

    and the Public Relations Industry.   Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995  

Carey, Alex.  Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Propaganda in the US and Australia.

    Sydney: University of New South Wales, 1995.

Blyskal, Jeff and Marie. PR: How the Public Relations Industry Writes the News.  New

    York: William Morrow and Company, 1985.

Nelson, Joyce. Sultans of Sleeze: Public Relations and the Media.  Toronto: Between

    The Lines, 1989.

 

More on broadcasting history and politics

Briggs, Asa.  The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom.  London: Oxford

    University Press, 1961.

McChesney, Robert W..  Telecommunications, Mass Media & Democracy: The Battle   

    for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928-1935.  Oxford University Press, 1993.

Peers, Frank.  The Public Eye: Television and the Politics of Canadian Broadcasting

    1952-1968.  Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979.

Peers, Frank. The Politics of Canadian Broadcasting 1920-1952.  Toronto: University of

    Toronto Press, 1969.

Weir, E. Austin.  The Struggle for National Broadcasting in Canada.  Toronto:

     McLelland & Stewart, 1965.

   

Hi tech blues

Gutstein, Donald.  e.con: how the internet undermines democracy.  Toronto: Stoddart,

    1999.

 

Supplementary

Compaine, Benjamin M.  Who Owns the Media?: Competition and Concentration in the

    Mass Media Industry.  3rd ed. Mahwah NJ.: Erlbaum Associates, 2000.

Curran, James et al., eds.  Bending Reality: The State of the Media.  London: Pluto

    Press, 1986.

Curran, James and Michael Gurevitch.  Mass Media and Society.  2nd edition.  London:   

    Arnold, 1996.

Curran, James ed.  Media Organisations in Society.  London: Arnold, 2000.

Dahlgren, Peter.  Television and the Public Sphere: Citizenship, Democracy and the    

    Media.  Sage, 1995.

Douglas, Sara U..  Labor's New Voice: Unions and the mass media.  Ablex, 1986.

Held, David.  Models of Democracy.  Stanford University Press, 1987.

Keane, John.  The Media and Democracy.  Polity Press, 1991.

Maureckas, Jim and Janine Jackson, eds.  The FAIR Reader: An Extra! Review of Press

    and Politics in the ‘90s.  Boulder: Westview Press, 1996.

Mosco,Vincent.  The Political Economy of Communication.  Sage, 1996.

Nordenstreng, Kaarle and Michael Griffin, eds.  International Media Monitoring.  

    Hampton Press, 1999.

Splichal, Slavko and Janet Wasko, eds.  Communication and Democracy. Ablex, 1993.

UNESCO, International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems.  Many

    Voices, One World (the MacBride Report).  UNESCO, 1980, 1984.

Wasko, Janet and Vincent Mosco, eds.  Democratic Communications in the

    Information Age.  Garamond/Ablex, co-publishers, 1992.

Williams, Granville.  Britain's Media: How they are related.   London: Campaign for

    Press & Broadcasting Freedom (8 Cynthia Street, London N1 9JF, U.K).  Third

    Edition, 1999.