In media conslidation news...

I wanted to call your attention to the newest potential big media merger making news. It looks like Comcast will be buying NBC. The Free Press is urging people to oppose the merger, with the argument that the merger will further hurt the public interest by severely limiting competition in the online video market by combining a major internet and cable provider with a major content provider. There is concern that this partnership will squeeze out entrants into the online video sphere, where it seems a lot of viewers are moving towards.

Politics in the Media

There are many issues you might want to explore in your blog posts on the intersection of politics and the media. Think about the different relationships and levels of relationships at play:

• -the relationship between politicians and the state and the media: How do politicians use the media? How does the media relate to politicians? What do Clayman et al. and McChesney have to say about this?
• -the relationship between the media and the political views of the public: How much influence does the media have on people's political attitudes? Do you think there's a difference between news coverage of politics vs. entertainment coverage/commentary of politics?

Further explore some of the questions and concepts we didn't get to spend much time on in class. What do you think of McChesney's overall analysis of Iraq War coverage? What are Clayman et al. looking at when they study Presidential news conferences? How do these two articles compare?

You might also write a blog post (now or perhaps next week) sharing your findings from the assignment that's due Monday.