Does Media Reform Have a Chance in the Digital Age?

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted January 11, 2007.

On the eve of the Media Reform Conference in Memphis, a new book by Jeffrey Chester documents the corporate media's behind-the-scenes efforts to transform our online media system into a powerful marketing machine. Media reformers and elected officials, please pay attention.

The timing is terrific for the New Press' publication of Jeffrey Chester's new book, Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy.

The book comes out just as a new Democratic majority in Congress is getting seated in Washington after a long absence and a large gaggle of media reformers are headed to Memphis, Tennessee, for a big gathering on January 13th and 14th. Hopefully both the Democrats and the reformers will hear Chester's very loud wake-up call about a rapidly changing digital media system that shreds consumer rights as it " uses the Internet as a personal information collection system."