In Rich Media, Poor Democracy

In Rich Media, Poor Democracy, Robert W. McChesney argues that the media, including the Internet, serve the interests of corporate profit rather than the public interest. The result of the concentrated corporate power that McChesney details is the weakening of democracy. The book is subtitled "Communication Politics in Dubious Times," but it could just as well have been subtitled, "The Media Versus Democracy." Published in 1999, in the 2000 edition McChesney states that his book "is about the democratic crisis in the United States and the rest of the world" (ix). He contends that "U.S. democracy is in a decrepit state" (281), and cites the purpose of his book "is to analyze the existing situation by drawing upon history and pointing toward democratic change in the future" (3).

The book deals with five major areas including media ownership/mergers, faults in the practice of journalism, the Internet, policy-making and media reform. McChesney divides his book into two major sections. Part I is Politics, and Part II is History; one of the

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