The Corporation Study Guide | Media & Communications

Barnouw, Erik. Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film. 2nd revised edition. NY: Oxford University Press, 1993.

This classic, widely-used text on documentary in its revised edition covers not only the history of documentary filmmaking from 1895 to its present renaissance but also the effects of recent technological developments.

Bernstein, Mathew. “Documentaphobia and Mixed Modes: Michael Moore’s Roger and Me” in Barry Keith Grant and Jeannette Sloniowski eds., Documenting the Documentary: Close Readings of Documentary Film and Video (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998), 397-415.

A key essay in this comprehensive collection, this essay examines an early work of Michael Moore, the maker of Farenheit 9/11 and featured in several interviews in The Corporation.

Chomsky, Noam and Edward Hermann. (1988) The Manufacture of Consent. New York: Pantheon Books. http://www.eclipse.net/~tgardnet/Propaganda_Model.html

In this link to an excerpt from The Manufacture of Consent, Chomsky and Hermann describe the “propaganda model” of news, which offers a concise summary theory of how news is shaped and constructed through five primary filters.

Ewen, Stuart. (1977/2001) Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of Consumer Culture. New York: Basic Books.

Written 25 years ago, this text remains a pillar in media studies, offering a historical and cultural analysis of the power of advertising in a global context. Excellently paired as a contrast to Advertising: the Uneasy Persuasion by Schudson.

Klein, Naomi. No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. New York: Vintage, 2002.

Elaborating on the themes discussed in The Corporation, Klein’s book surveys the wide-reaching effect of the takeover of public space and disruption of democracy by a variety of large corporations, both nationally and internationally. Highly readable and sure to provoke debate, this book provides many additional accounts of the effects of advertising, privatization, sweatshop labor and discusses the anti-globalization movement.

Minh-Ha, Trinh. (1992). Framer Framed. New York: Routledge.

Internationally reknowned filmmaker, critic and theorist provides a collection of essays addressing key questions about film, documentary, and representation.

Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.

This text by a highly respected film scholar and authority on ethnographic documentary filmmaking covers key topics and issues which have emerged and been debated throughout the last century of documentary making, from ethics and politics, to voice, reference, and representation.

Nichols, Bill. Representing Reality: Issues and Concepts in Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.

This early overview of documentary filmmaking addresses how social issues are brought to the audience through style and narrative structure as they reflect to power, knowledge and history. This text also considers the relationship between representation and reality and signifier and signified by linking filmmaking and semiotics.

Schudson, Michael. (1986/1993) Advertising, the Uneasy Persuasion. New York: Basic Books.

A careful sociological study of how advertising impacts U.S. culture, this book offers good contrast to Ewen’s Captains of Consciousness.

Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Practices of Looking explores the ways we use and understand images. Truly interdisciplinary, this comprehensive and engaging introduction can be used in courses across a range of disciplines including media and film studies, communications, art history, and photography.

Williams, Linda. “Mirrors Without Memories: Truth, History and the New Documentary.” Film Quarterly. Vol. 46, No. 3, Spring 1993: 12.

This article discusses such thinkers as Frederic Jameson and considers the consequences of postmodernism for documentary making and viewing. Through an analysis of several key documentaries this article explores the contradictions between the capacity of the documentary to conceal and conflate and its capacity to effect change through representation.

Reality Film Documentary Resources and Reviews
Reality Film has one basic mission: to provide a central, authoritative location for documentary inquiry and resources on the Internet. Extensive links to resources, reviews, academic writings, and news stories.

Columbia Journalism Review: Who Owns What
Premiere database that allows one to investigate which corporations own which media outlets. The CJR Home Site is considered the foremost monitor of news and media issues.

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
A preeminent media watchdog organization with extensive reporting on issues such as corporate influence on news media.

Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman
A daily radio and TV news program shown on over 270 stations, pioneering the largest independent news source and community media collaboration in the United States. Can be easily streamed online from this site or from www.kpfa.org.

Media Literacy Online Project
One of the most extensive websites linking to organizations, articles, projects, and websites related to media literacy.

Critical Media Literacy in Times of War
Engages users in analysis of media coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan, and how different print news sources offer contradictory reports regarding casualties, war protests, and sanctions.

Communication Studies University of Iowa
This site provides extensive resources for media and communication studies across disciplines, including links to journals and other academic resources.

Center for Digital Democracy
The Center for Digital Democracy is committed to preserving the openness and diversity of the Internet in the broadband era, and to realizing the full potential of digital communications through the development and encouragement of noncommercial, public interest programming.

Global Issues that Affect Everyone
Containing over 5000 links to external articles, web sites, reports and analysis are used to provide credence to the arguments made on this web site. The categories of issues range from trade, poverty and globalization, to human rights, geopolitics and the environment.

The Media Channel
This site contains a visual chart which offers a quick visual of who owns what. The Media Channel homepage offers a substantial global network for resources on democracy and media.

Voice of the Shuttle
Searchable database resources to academic online and offline bibliographies and resources across the field of media studies, including syllabi, departments, journals.

Media Awareness Network
This links to an article on the “nag factor” as discussed in The Coporation. The Media Awareness Network is an extensive site for researching media studies, advertising, youth, and education.

MediaKnowAll Documentary Definitions
This link offers one definition of documentary, and links to further definitions from three other sites.

Through the Looking Glass: Corporate Responsibility in the Media and Entertainment Sector
A 2002 publication by a London group called SustainAbility, this unusual policy report analyzes corporate media’s “footprint” or effects on society and the environment.