Week Three (Feb 1) - Analyzing Institutions: The Corporation

Readings for today:

• Robert McChesney, “The Market Über Alles” In The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2004), pp. 175-209.
• Stacy Mitchell, "Preface" to Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses (Beacon Press, 2007).
• In class screening: The Corporation
• FIELDWORK PAPER DUE TODAY

Reading questions & guides:

• Questions: Robert McChesney, “The Market Über Alles”

KEY TERMS: Political Economy, Corporation, Monopoly, Oligopoly, Consolidation, Free Market
CULTURAL ARTIFACTS: Media corporations, 'Big-Box' retailers


For further reading & research:

• Interactive media ownership charts (via Free Press)
• Media Ownership chart (including Internet companies)
• Dave Gilson and Carolyn Perot, "It's the Inequality, Stupid: Eleven Charts That Explain Everything That's Wrong With America," Mother Jones, March/April 2011.
• The Walt Disney Company's assets (via Free Press)
• Wal-Mart growth in the U.S. (animation video)
• David Cromwell, "The Propaganda Model: An Overview," excerpted from Private Planet, 2002.