Journalism and the Crisis of Democracy
Stop the presses! Breaking News! Journalism is dying! The terms seismic shifts and tectonic plates moving are overused but they certainly apply to journalism today. The venerable fourth estate is an endangered species. Newspapers, like the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, which was around for 150 years, have closed. Many others are threatened. Foreign reporting, never a strong suit, is getting worse. Bureaus are being cut back or eliminated. The demise of journalism, particularly investigative journalism, would have major implications for the functioning of our increasingly parlous democracy. If politicians and corporations, bankers and financiers know that there is no one looking at and reporting on what they are doing then corruption, which already exists, will increase exponentially. The masters will go unchallenged. Unless a new economic model emerges, print journalism as we’ve known it, will cease to exist.
Recorded at the University of Portland.
Speaker
Robert McChesney
Robert McChesney was a leading media historian and public intellectual. He was a professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later was the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He was co-founder of Free Press, a non-profit organization working to increase public participation in media policy debates. His work focused on the role of journalism and democracy in a capitalist system. An activist scholar, he was a champion of independent progressive media. Noam Chomsky said, “Robert McChesney’s work has been of extraordinary importance. It should be read with care and concern by people who care about freedom and basic rights.” A prolific author, among his many books are Rich Media, Poor Democracy, Blowing the Roof off the Twenty-First Century, and Digital Disconnect. He is co-author with John Nichols of Dollarocracy and People Get Ready. Robert McChesney passed away in late March 2025.
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