Victor Pickard is an author deeply invested in the intersection of media, inequality, and social change. His work critically examines how media systems shape democratic possibilities and explores pathways toward a more equitable digital future. Pickard's approach centers on dissecting power dynamics within communication structures and advocating for media democratization. His writing is essential for understanding the complexities of contemporary media policy and the public interest.
In this delightful board book built on wordplay, toddlers will recognize each activity--getting dressed, playing, painting (including themselves), having a bath--and see how the animal makes the mischievous most of it. The bumblebee breaks its toy--bumblebee grumblebee! The cockatoo is getting dressed--cockatoo sockatoo! The pelican tries out the potty--pelican smellican! What will turtle do? Everybody gathers for the final squirtle. Each scene twists the animals' names into funny new words to share and delight in how they feel and sound. Bumblebee Grumblebee is for toddlers and adults to have fun experimenting with the way words are put together.
As local media institutions collapse and news deserts sprout up across the country, the US is facing a profound journalism crisis. Meanwhile, continuous revelations about the role that major media outlets-from Facebook to Fox News-play in the spread of misinformation have exposed deep pathologies in American communication systems. Despite these threats to democracy, policy responses have been woefully inadequate. 0In Democracy Without Journalism? Victor Pickard argues that we're overlooking the core roots of the crisis. By uncovering degradations caused by run-amok commercialism, he brings into focus the historical antecedents, market failures, and policy inaction that led to the implosion of commercial journalism and the proliferation of misinformation through both social media and mainstream news. The problem isn't just the loss of journalism or irresponsibility of Facebook, but the very0structure upon which our profit-driven media system is built. The rise of a "misinformation society" is symptomatic of historical and endemic weaknesses in the American media system tracing back to the early commercialization of the press in the 1800s. While professionalization was meant to resolve tensions between journalism's public service and profit imperatives, Pickard argues that it merely camouflaged deeper structural maladies. Journalism has always been in crisis. The market never supported the levels of journalism-especially local, international, policy, and investigative reporting-that a healthy democracy requires. Today these long-term defects have metastasized.0In this book, Pickard presents a counter-narrative that shows how the modern journalism crisis stems from media's historical over-reliance on advertising revenue, the ascendance of media monopolies, and a lack of public oversight. He draws attention to the perils of monopoly control over digital infrastructures and the rise of platform monopolies, especially the "Facebook problem."
Henry, a very organized pig, frowns at the untidy farm where he lives, but after making a map to show where everything belongs, he and the other farm animals discover a big problem.
