In an article for Quartz about the role the media will play in influencing voters in India’s upcoming general election, Sahil Wajid highlights Prof. Emeritus Noam Chomsky’s book, “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media.” The book is a “seminal work on systemic bias afflicting the corporate news industry,” writes Wajid.
Prof. Thomas Malone writes for Salon about Elon Musk’s recent proposal to create a “media credibility rating site” where the public could rate journalists and media outlets. “Crowdsourcing can work—even when most people in the crowd can’t do the task well—if there is some independent way of recognizing and giving special weight to the crowd members who are good at the task.”
Media Lab researcher Anushka Shah analyzes recent news coverage using the MIT Media Cloud on WBUR’s Here & Now. As an open source platform, the Media Cloud allows “people to have a stronger tool to be able to analyze and reflect in the media,” Shah says.
A new study co-authored by Prof. Ariel White finds that news outlets can impact the issues Americans talk about, reports Deborah Netburn of the Los Angeles Times. As the authors note in the study, “The decisions made in the nation’s editorial boardrooms have remarkably large effects on the character and composition of the national conversation.”
In this video, Prof. Heather Hendershot speaks with Mary Kissel of The Wall Street Journal about her new book examining the impact of William F. Buckley’s program the “Firing Line.” “He was the key player in forging a sophisticated, urban, elegant image for right wing conservatism. And that got me interested in him,” Hendershot explains.
Comparative Media Studies research affiliate Sam Ford writes for The Boston Globe about former Daily Show host Jon Stewart’s recent professional wrestling appearances. “I’m guessing Stewart finds something refreshing about a world where the performance comes with a wink and where fans are invited to be in on the con,” writes Ford.