A groundswell of support for reforming the media. My article on the unprecedented growth of the media reform movement for Utne magazine is now online, thanks to the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting:

If you know anything at all about the Federal Communications Commission, says media scholar Robert McChesney, you shouldn't be surprised by its June 2 vote to relax rules restricting how many media outlets a company can own. The FCC, he explains, is traditionally a "captured" agency -- one that has internalized the values of the industry it regulates -- so its decision to hand over more power and wealth to media conglomerates shouldn't be shocking. But here's what is: Despite a virtual blackout on the issue by network news, the public flooded the FCC and Congress with some 2 million responses -- the vast majority opposing deregulation. (Even Congress took notice, with the Senate voting September 16 to roll back the FCC ruling.) Does this groundswell signal an isolated consumer uprising or the growing strength of a new movement pressing for media democracy?

Read the entire article here.

Also: Thanks to LiveJournal blogger Lindsay for typing in a piece I cowrote with Clayton Trapp in the latest issue of Adbusters on the disturbing new trend in radio frequency identification chips that are replacing traditional barcodes.