Asper Nation

Asper Nation
Author: Marc Edge
Publisher:
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2007
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

The second generation of Aspers that now runs Canada's largest news media company is much like the first. Israel "Izzy" Asper's three children often appear in today's headlines. David is bidding to buy the Winnipeg Blue Bombers football team. Gail heads fundraising efforts for the new Canadian Museum of Human Rights. Leonard sits in his father's place as head of CanWest Global Communications. Like its founder, they also use their media empire to influence public opinion. Asper Nation explains why Canadians should be concerned about where the country's first family of news media is coming from, politically. Izzy Asper was an oddity as a Liberal politician in the 1970s. Fiscally, he was to the right of most Conservatives. As a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, he called for a flat tax and "workfare." As a best-selling author, he helped thwart a plan to shift Canada's tax burden from the middle class onto corporations. But when Asper took his policies to Manitobans as Liberal leader in 1973, he was soundly defeated. Asper got into the television business instead and built Canada's third network. Asper made CanWest the country's most profitable broadcaster by feasting on regulations that encouraged the importation of cheap American programming. He took his formula to the world in the 1990s, buying television networks in New Zealand, Australia, and Ireland. Then in 2000, Asper pioneered media "convergence," buying Canada's largest newspaper chain from Conrad Black. Southam dailies were soon ordered to run "national" editorials written at CanWest Global headquarters in Winnipeg. This corporate news control brought protest from journalists and two government inquiries. Neither resulted in long-sought limits on media ownership, however. Marc Edge offers a compelling account of the political perils involved in allowing the Asper family to dominate Canadian media.

CHEK Republic

CHEK Republic
Author: Diane Dakers
Publisher: Heritage House Publishing Co
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2014-10-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1772030007

In 2009, Victoria's CHEK-TV became the first employee-owned television station in North America after corporate owner CanWest Global threatened to shut it down. The David-and-Goliath story made national headlines and reawakened a belief in local, independent broadcasting. In the five years since the employee purchase of the station, CHEK has weathered the challenges of independent ownership and remains proudly local, in every sense of the word. While the future of media is unpredictable and the feasibility of local television continues to be challenged, CHEK Republic is, at its core, a success story, chronicling the long history, near downfall, and rebirth of a truly one-of-a-kind media outlet.

Networked Nation

Networked Nation
Author: Jasper Cornelis van Putten
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2017-11-06
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9004353968

In Networked Nation: Mapping German Cities in Sebastian Münster’s 'Cosmographia', Jasper van Putten examines the groundbreaking woodcut city views in the German humanist Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographia. This description of the world, published in Basel from 1544 to 1628, glorified the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and engendered the city book genre. Van Putten argues that Münster’s network of city view makers and contributors—from German princes and artists to Swiss woodcutters, draftsmen, and printers—expressed their local and national cultural identities in the views. The Cosmographia, and the city books it inspired, offer insights into the development of German and Swiss identity from 1550 to Switzerland’s independence from the empire in 1648.

Cross-Media Ownership and Democratic Practice in Canada

Cross-Media Ownership and Democratic Practice in Canada
Author: Walter C. Soderlund
Publisher: University of Alberta
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2012-04-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0888646054

Groundbreaking study of cross-media ownership allays concerns of content convergence monopolization among newspapers and television.

Samsung, Media Empire and Family

Samsung, Media Empire and Family
Author: Chunhyo Kim
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2016-02-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317362926

This book analyses media conglomerates owning multiple media holdings under centralized ownership within and across media markets. It argues that Asian capitalists utilize both a market-oriented ideology and family connections to build their media empires, thereby creating cultural conglomerates that exercise corporate censorship over media markets. It focuses on family-controlled media conglomerates in Korea, specifically the international business giant, Samsung, and its related media companies, Cheil Jedang and JoongAng Ilbo, all of which are controlled by the single Lee family. Utilizing the theoretical approach of political economy of communication, the book examines how and why the Lee family exercise corporate censorship over Korean society. Offering an essential take on Asia’s political economy of communication in order to understand the workings of Asian media empires, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Korean Studies, Korean Business and Mass Communications.

The Unfulfilled Promise of Press Freedom in Canada

The Unfulfilled Promise of Press Freedom in Canada
Author: Lisa Taylor
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2017-04-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1487510853

Canadian news reports are riddled with accounts of Access to Information requests denied and government reports released with large swaths of content redacted. The Unfulfilled Promise of Press Freedom in Canada offers a vast array of viewpoints that critically analyze the application and interpretation of press freedom under the Charter of Rights. This collection, assiduously put together by editors Lisa Taylor and Cara-Marie O’Hagan, showcases the insights of leading authorities in law, journalism, and academia as well as broadcasters and public servants. The contributors explore the ways in which press freedom has been constrained by outside forces, like governmental interference, threats of libel suits, and financial constraints. These intersectional and multifaceted lines of inquiry provide the reader with a 360-degree assessment of press freedom in Canada while discouraging complacency among Canadian citizens. After all, an informed citizenry is a free citizenry.

Pop Culture Goes to War

Pop Culture Goes to War
Author: Geoff Martin
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2010-07-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0739146823

Pop Culture Goes to War, by Geoff Martin and Erin Steuter, explores the persistence of and opposition to militarism in American life. It provides a comprehensive overview of the role of toys, video games, music, television and movies in supporting contemporary militarism. Resistance to militarism is highlighted through the traditional mediums of music and movies, and increasingly through the arts, 'culture jamming,' and the satire of The Daily Show, The Onion, The Simpsons, The Colbert Report, and South Park.

The Political Economy of Communication

The Political Economy of Communication
Author: Vincent Mosco
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 590
Release: 2009-04-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1446245756

"A masterpiece... the one single indispensable book that all media students and scholars need to read to understand this vital and growing area of research." - Robert W. McChesney, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "A contemporary classic of media studies. Vincent Mosco, among the leading media scholars of our or any time, brings his searing insights and crystal prose to bear on the latest issues and debates of the field... An indispensable resource for researchers, activists, and students everywhere." - Toby Miller, University of California, Riverside Since publication of its first edition, The Political Economy of Communication has established itself as a true classic and one of the most important contributions to the field. This second edition has been thoroughly restructured, updated and expanded to make it an indispensable text for students and scholars alike. Putting the student at the centre of its updates, this book: Maps the definitions and foundations of political economy Adds 3 new chapters to explore current trends, from feminism and labour to new media, forms of resistance, media reform and democracy Illustrates throughout how power operates across the 21st century media landscape Explores key issues in how media power intersects with globalization, social class, race, gender and surveillance Shows media students why it is essential to understand political economy and its application to media and communication. Combining penetrating theoretical analysis with passionate commitment, Vincent Mosco once again gives readers an indispensable introduction to the field.

Journalism and Climate Crisis

Journalism and Climate Crisis
Author: Robert A. Hackett
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2017-02-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317361997

Journalism and Climate Crisis: Public Engagement, Media Alternatives recognizes that climate change is more than an environmental crisis. It is also a question of political and communicative capacity. This book enquires into which approaches to journalism, as a particularly important form of public communication, can best enable humanity to productively address climate crisis. The book combines selective overviews of previous research, normative enquiry (what should journalism be doing?) and original empirical case studies of environmental communication and media coverage in Australia and Canada. Bringing together perspectives from the fields of environmental communication and journalism studies, the authors argue for forms of journalism that can encourage public engagement and mobilization to challenge the powerful interests vested in a high-carbon economy – ‘facilitative’ and ‘radical’ roles particularly well-suited to alternative media and alternative journalism. Ultimately, the book argues for a fundamental rethinking of relationships between journalism, publics, democracy and climate crisis. This book will interest researchers, students and activists in environmental politics, social movements and the media.