Class 6 Lecture Notes

Still other threats challenge the relationship between magazines and their readers. Chronicling the sad rise of the advertorial (where promotional material masquerades as reporting), Harper’s publisher John MacArthur warns: “You should be greatly concerned by the notion that press freedom nowadays hangs not by a stout cord between publisher and reader, but rather by a more tenuous thread connecting advertisers and the media.” And he would know: Pfizer withdrew “between $400,000 and a million dollars” worth of ads fromHarper’s because of an unflattering piece on depression medication. His magazine got by, but MacArthur is quick to point out that many others wouldn’t survive such a blow. Nothing summarizes this predicament better than the grim binary of his chapter’s title, “The Publisher’s Role: Crusading Defender of the First Amendment or Advertising Salesman?”

The Myth of the Liberal Media

Who Owns the Media? 

Regulation Survey