Media and other Informers

Many of us know how it DOESN'T work. We don't have an honorable free press, owned at arms length by captains of industry who believe in the free market and the free press. I have a feeling that getting some clear sense of how it really works might help us create strategies for serving the functions we wish were served by the corporate media. So: What DO we have?

1. How corrupt (compared to our fantasy of what media should be) is it?
2. COULD it even work the way we'd like it to? (I suggest that, for now, the answer is NO)
3. What might we ask be done differently? If so, who might we be asking?
4. What are the basic functions we'd like to see served in the Information Commons - that longed for realm where the interested members of the public might access accurate and useful information?