Summary: Do TV viewers find any real differences when they switch between the major news networks? How rigorous is the reporting? Has subservience to corporate interests replaced true journalism? This program explores the emergence of alternative media in the form of blogs, satellite broadcasts, and documentaries that examine rarely visited yet vital issues. Focusing on the political arena and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: What constitutes news in the Digital Age, and who is most qualified to report it? This program takes an insightful look at the growing marginalization of the mainstream press in the face of the digital communication revolution through the eyes of journalists, bloggers, scholars, and the twentysomethings who are driving the consumption and production of news. The merits and liabilities of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Center for Media and Public Affairs reports that during the 1990s the homicide rate in the U.S. dropped 50 percent, yet homicide news coverage increased by an incredible 700 percent. In this program, the Center's Bob Lichter and the Threat Assessment Group's Greg McCrary join ABC News anchor John Stossel to examine some of the factors that contribute to the exaggeration of risks and dangers...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: From the offices of insolvent newspapers to the vibrant yet uncertain online publishing scene, journalists are struggling to reinvent a troubled industry. This program follows bloggers, hackers, independent publishers, and social media mavericks working in the trenches of Chicago, a hub of digital media innovation. Shot over a two-year period, the film focuses on events such as the bankruptcy...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Bush administration marketed and sold the war in Iraq to the American people. How and why did the press buy it, and what does that say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda? In this program, veteran journalist Bill Moyers, award-winning producer Kathleen Hughes, and their investigative team piece together the reporting and political spin that...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program looks at the impact of the visual image on news and politics in the electing of Presidents and the governing of America. While projecting a self-serving image has long been an understandable part of American politics, the 1980s produced a marriage of sophisticated news manipulation by political candidates and a willingness of the news media to dance to the candidate's tune. To what...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Some stories are simply too good to be true. In this program, John Kampfner, political editor for the New Statesman (London), skewers heroic reports of the ambush, capture, and rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, calling them misrepresentations designed to bolster wavering support for the Iraq War. Kampfner also scrutinizes the controversial practice of embedding members of the news media in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In a world of information overload, information literacy has become a survival skill. But what exactly does information literacy mean? With a focus on the Internet, this video explains how to conduct solid online research by collecting information in an organized, efficient, and ethical way. Professor Maurita Holland of the University of Michigan School of Information provides expert commentary...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: As valued as it is, the principle of free speech through which everyone can have their say is an especially slippery slope as populations grow more pluralistic and the desire to get along creates pressure to curtail any expression that may potentially insult some portion of the people. Must freedom of expression include the license to offend? That is the question in this Oxford Union-style...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: This Wide Angle documentary goes behind the scenes at al-Jazeera's broadcast headquarters in Qatar during its nonstop coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The program highlights the Arab-language network's differences from its Western counterparts, yet also illustrates striking similarities between al-Jazeera's media sensibilities and those familiar to most Americans. The flow of world events...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Jon Stewart is considered one of America's top social and comedic voices. In this program, veteran journalist Bill Moyers interviews Stewart, the long-standing anchor of the award-winning Daily Show with Jon Stewart, about why so many viewers get their news and analysis from his fake news show. Does humor have a role to play in ensuring an informed public? Also on the program, Josh Marshall,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: TV and radio commercials, Web sites and banner ads, magazine ads, pop songs, photos, and even news articles and textbooks: all of them are sending messages to influence the reader/viewer/listener. How do they grab the attention? What are they selling-a product or service? a lifestyle? an ideology?-and why? Would a different media consumer interpret the message differently? This program raises...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: With a career spanning more than five decades, Ben Bradlee commands the respect and attention of today's news community. This in-depth conversation between NewsHour's Jim Lehrer and the former managing editor of the Washington Post provides a wealth of journalistic acumen vital to communications and media studies. Bradlee sheds light on his early friendship with John F. Kennedy, the Watergate...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this TEDTalk, musician and activist Peter Gabriel shares his very personal motivation for standing up for human rights with the watchdog group WITNESS - and tells stories of citizen journalists in action. WITNESS is an international human rights organization that provides digital camcorders, training, and support to local groups to enable them to integrate video into their human rights...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In an environment increasingly dominated by network ratings and tabloid-driven stories, the line between journalism and entertainment is blurred. In this program, correspondent Hedrick Smith goes behind the hype and the headlines to show how the media affect the national agenda and the standards of political debate. Network personalities Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Brit Hume, and Eric Engberg;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: With his vast media empire, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is Italy's richest man. This Wide Angle documentary explores questions about the independence of the Italian media under Berlusconi, analyzing the effect of his combination of political power and personal ownership of a large sector of the press. Clearly illustrating the impediments that the Berlusconi machine placed before the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program explains how to teach media literacy through the application of three basic facts and five key analytical questions that can be applied to any media message. This simple and highly effective approach is reinforced by insights and observations provided by important figures in the media literacy movement, including Elizabeth Thoman, Tessa Jolls, and Jeff Share, of the Center for...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although China’s government has pledged to revise its policies toward political dissidents, that promise remains largely unfulfilled. This program reveals egregious cases of political oppression occurring in recent years, countering the picture China painted of itself as it promoted the Beijing Olympics. Pushing back against bureaucracy and official stonewalling, the program examines the work...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Investigative reporting is expensive, time-consuming, labor-intensive; it can be dangerous-and you can get sued. The resultant slack in network news investigative reporting has been taken up by some local stations. And, as this program illustrates, there are some important trends: the growth of environmental stories and the emergence of women as a powerful force in investigative journalism....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In al Qaeda's global jihad against the West, videos of smiling suicide bombers and insurgent ambushes have become as important as the attacks they glorify. This program illustrates in chilling detail how Islamic extremists use the power of the Internet and the network sound bite. From the markets of Baghdad, where brightly packaged jihadist DVDs are snapped up by young consumers, to the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Twenty-five years after the Islamic Revolution, Iran is struggling for political reform. Some of the most visible signs of struggle can be found in the nation's media. This Wide Angle documentary goes behind the scenes at Shargh, one of Iran's new pro-reform newspapers, illustrating its efforts to report the news without incurring the "blade of censorship"-an ever-present threat from Iranian...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The development of authentic self-esteem and a healthy sense of self has always been a vitally important part of growing up. But this process is a challenge that has gotten even trickier to negotiate due to the widespread integration of digital technology into everyday living. Drawing on the insights of a clinical psychologist/family therapist, an adolescent psychologist, and a number of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Karuk, Yurok, and Hoopa peoples live along northern California's Klamath River, and each tribe's ancient culture revolves around the majestic Pacific salmon. Today, four large hydroelectric dams have made salmon extinction a real and frightening possibility. This case study follows tribal members as they confront the owners of the dams-specifically, a global energy giant in Scotland which...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: How have mixed cultural signals and online social interaction impacted the average teenager's behavior? Is reducing violence, drug abuse, and dangerous sex a lost cause? This ABC News program examines those questions, presenting three eye-opening stories of teen life. First, a small Michigan town recoils from a school-hall stabbing, highlighting an alarming rise in abusive teenage...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006