Book Review: Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives,by Des Freedman,Jonathan A. Obar,Cheryl Martens,and Robert W. McChesney (Eds.)

Abstract

In the past decade, technological disruption of the media (business model, media education, and the citizen interaction) places continuous stress upon media and government entities (Finberg, 2013). This state of flux brings new issues for media reform and provides new opportunities to mobilize citizens and activists. Disruption impacts citizens, media policy and law, and media reform efforts in global contexts.

The editors of Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives compiled media reform studies which illustrate symmetries of media stakeholder concerns and strategic concepts that work in a variety of contexts; from established democracies and transitional governments, to authoritarian regimes. Freeman and Obar (2016) explain their purpose is to “serve as a useful resource for scholars and activists alike, looking to better understand the concept of media reform, and how it is being advanced around the world” (p. 12).

I approach this review wondering what about media reform scholarship is valuable to my emerging journalism and mass communication students. As an educator, I feel compelled to prepare students to hold careers as industry practitioners, government officials, scholars, or activists. Initially, I felt Strategies for Media Reform was too ideological. Given the intended audience (activist and scholars), the ideological weight is understandable. The editors’ positions appear more political than do the individual chapters (cases). Instructors will need to provide alternative voices. However, the information presented in Chapters 3 to 26 illustrates interesting cases of reform movements and their communication strategies.

Freeman et al. present individual cases of media reform, describe the issues, show the processes, and analyze the outcomes of the specific contextual issues. Chapter 1 provides an overview of media reform as a concept. Chapter 2 explains media policy literacy. These chapters frame the issues and situations presented in the rest of Strategies for Media Reform. By presenting actual cases of reform movement successes and failures, this text supplies a practical element valuable to media reform activists as well as strategic communicators.

I list the pedagogical benefits as I comprehend them:

Philosophy of Human Rights: The social and ethical media reform issues presented in the text are beneficial for students to understand in their roles as active members of the media and media literate citizens.

Global Role of Media Reform: Media reform issues are essentially universal even though the social and governmental contexts have specific causes and effects. This book will help students to see media practice globally, in different governmental and social situations.

Media Policy Literacy: As media practitioners, policy makers, or scholars, students should understand the impact of government policy, the influence of media reform movements, and how media power-struggles frame ethical standards, media policy, and media roles.

Communication Strategies: Strategic communication educators and practitioners will find the media strategies presented to be useful for mobilizing public support, creating online communities, and developing effective messaging.

I also perceive pedagogical weaknesses which educators will need to consider:

No Diverse Points of View: The careers of students may take different or even oppositional roles to the activist target audience of this book. Ideally, instructors provide multiple perspectives to fully relate the complicated structure of developing media policy.

Not Evenhanded: Students may be influenced by the politically-charged language which serves as a covert ad hominem attack upon alternative points of view. Opposition to a position does not indicate a desire to limit free speech or universal access to information.

Oversimplifies Opposition: Free press, freedom of information, and the right to communicate are universal rights regardless of political identification. The text assumes the straw man fallacy; assuming points of view other than the editors’ are anti-democratic. Alternative positions of government and the media industry are presumed to be unreasonable or anti-democratic.

Media reform has two dimensions, consumer rights and civil rights. Consumer rights-based media reform works within the traditional system of law making and lobbying to create incremental change. The civil rights orientation of media reform stems from a social justice perspective which works to delegitimize traditional media, transform media power structures, and democratize (to distribute the power of communication as widely as possible) the media as part of social justice movements globally.

Each chapter demonstrates the obstacles to transforming civil rights, communication rights, and media reform in a variety of governmental contexts. The media reform examples presented range from cyber surveillance and press freedom to broadcast rights and breaking media ownership monopolies, to name a few.

Des Freedman is a professor of media and communication studies at Goldsmiths, University of London and a founding member of the Media Reform Coalition. Jonathan A. Obar is assistant professor of communication at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada, a senior advisor to Wikipedia’s Global Education Program, and a teaching fellow with the Wikimedia Foundation. Cheryl Martens is a senior lecturer in the Media School at Bournemouth University, UK, and a founder of the Coalition for Democratic Radio Broadcasting (La Coalición por una Radiodifusión Democratica) in Argentina. Robert W. McChesney is professor of communication at the University of Illinois Center for Global Studies and is a founding member of the media reform organization, Free Press.

Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives does provide a pedagogical platform for an exploration of media reform in global contexts. It can serve educators as one perspective among many to share in the classroom in the development of understanding the complexity of media reform issues in global contexts.

References

Finberg

(2013, August 9). Journalism schools need to adapt or risk becoming irrelevant. Poynter. Retrieved from http://www.poynter.org/2013/scary-future-journalism-education/220410/

Freeman

Obar

J. A.

(2016). Media reform: An overview. In Freedman

Obar

J. A.

Martens

McChesney

R. W.

(Eds.), Strategies for media reform: International perspectives. (pp. 3-18). New York, NY: Fordham University Press.