The power and reach of media are enormous and growing. A crucial question to ask is: Who are the media? Increasingly, they are large corporations that depend on other corporations, i.e., advertisers, to support them. Media are among the most important institutions that maintain, reinforce and reproduce existing societal arrangements. The media set the political agenda by defining what is news. What about individuals and groups who don't command large staffs, slick PR experts and huge budgets, in other words, 95% of the population? How do they get access? The current spectrum of opinion in the media is extremely limited. It ranges from A to C. A functioning and vital democratic society requires media that are open and responsive to a pluralism of views. This fiery presentation was given at the Z Media Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Ron Daniels
Ron Daniels is a long time organizer and politcal activist. He worked on the 1984 and 1988 Jesse Jackson Rainbow Coalition Presidential Campaigns. In 1992, he was an independent candidate for President on the Campaign for a New Tomorrow Ticket. He is Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.