Robert W. McChesney's 2000 book Rich Media, Poor Democracy (New Press) was selected to receive the 2008 ICA Fellows Book Award. The award recognizes those books that have made a substantial contribution to the scholarship of the communication field, as well as the broader rubric of the social sciences, and have stood some test of time. Any book nominated must have been available for at least the immediate past five years prior to the conference at which the award is presented.
"Rich Media, Poor Democracy is an important volume that has made a major difference in the way scholars and public officials frame important regulatory/ownership issues," said the ICA Fellows Nominating Committee.
"The sweep of the book is broad and its thesis is extremely well developed," the Committee added. "It has exerted great influence and is still cited regularly by scholars both inside and outside communication. Rich Media, Poor Democracy is the epitome of public scholarship in communication."
McChesney's book is a critical examination of the inherent tension in the media between the democratic society's need for multiple-aspect, uncensored communication and media outlets' participation in competitive, business-driven marketplace competition. The contemporary trend of media consolidation and conglomeration, he argues, allows the wealthiest and most powerful corporate interests to control the content of news and media broadcasts. Even the Internet, which promises a new frontier of unprecedented competition and access to information, he suggests has become yet another victim of the stranglehold of corporate media, necessitating a more stringent system of government regulation and subsidizing for journalistic enterprises.
At the time of its publication, Rich Media, Poor Democracy was immediately heralded as a pioneering analysis of new media and the changing face of traditional media. "While Rich Media, Poor Democracy continues down a well-worn path of media criticism, it nevertheless breaks important new ground," said the review in the Industry Standard.
McChesney is Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his Ph.D. in communication from the University of Washington. Adbusters magazine named McChesney one of the "Nine Pioneers of Mental Environmentalism."
He was presented with the Award on May 24, 2008 during ICA's 58th Annual International Conference in Montreal, Canada.
