by Saskia Rowley | Aug 12, 2019 | Communication Rights
An influential book on communications in the 1980s was Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Communication, by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. It proposed a “propaganda model” as a way of understanding how the mass media system intersected with the U.S....
by Saskia Rowley | Aug 6, 2019 | Communication Rights
In an era when misinformation and “fake news” abound on social media, it is important to understand where people get their news. Democratic participation and accountable government rest on informed and balanced opinion that is transparent about its motivations and...
by Saskia Rowley | Jul 29, 2019 | Communication Rights
Walk around any city and your face will be caught on camera and might even be added to a facial-recognition database. That data can now be processed in real-time. Regulations about how it can be used are minimal and generally weak. The military, law-enforcement...
by Saskia Rowley | Jul 22, 2019 | Communication Rights
There was a mantra among communities and businesses when foreign goods and huge chain stores started crowding out small, local operations. “Buy local” was the cry. With climate change sensitising people to the carbon footprint of food and flowers flown in from around...
by Saskia Rowley | Jul 15, 2019 | Communication Rights
Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, writes that the impacts of global heating are likely to undermine not only basic rights to life, water, food, and housing for hundreds of millions of people, but also democracy and the rule of...