Goldsmith Book Prize
1 appearances
-
Edition 7 (2000) Winner
Robert W. McChesney
ロバート・ダブリュー・マクチェスニー
Robert Waterman McChesney
Profile
- Gender
- Male
- Born
- 1952-12-22 （Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.）
- Died
- 2025-03-25 （Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.） age 72
- Nationality
- American
- Languages
- English
- Residence History
- Shaker Heights, Ohio (grew up) → Olympia, Washington (attended Evergreen) → Seattle, Washington (founding publisher of The Rocket) → Urbana–Champaign, Illinois (University of Illinois faculty) → Madison, Wisconsin (final residence)
Career
- Occupations
- Professor, Author, Activist, Journalist
- Active Years
- 1975-2025
- Affiliations
- Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (Gutgsell Endowed Professor), University of Wisconsin–Madison (taught), Free Press (co-founder)
- Influenced By
- Edward S. Herman, John Nichols
- Influenced
- Media scholars and media reform activists
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Evergreen State College | — | History and Political Economy | BA | 1970年代 | United States |
| University of Washington | — | Communications | PhD | 1980年代（大学院） | United States |
The Evergreen State College
History and Political Economy
Degree:
BA
Period:
1970年代
Year of Graduation:
1977
Country:
United States
Undergraduate studies in history and political economy
University of Washington
Communications
Degree:
PhD
Period:
1980年代（大学院）
Year of Graduation:
1989
Country:
United States
Completed PhD in Communications
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy
2016 Non-fiction (media, political economy)Discusses how media and economic policy affect civil society and democracy and proposes more equitable institutional arrangements.
Media reformDemocracyEconomic inequality
Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy
2013 Non-fiction (technology, media criticism)Analyzes how the internet and digital media are shaped by capitalist dynamics in ways that threaten democracy.
InternetCritique of capitalismFairness of information
The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again
2010 Non-fiction (journalism studies)Examines the crisis in American journalism and offers institutional proposals to sustain public-interest reporting.
JournalismPolicy proposalsPublic sphere
The Political Economy of Media: Enduring Issues, Emerging Dilemmas
2008 Academic (political economy of media)Systematic analysis of media from a political-economy perspective covering ownership and regulation issues.
OwnershipRegulationCapital and media
Bibliography
- People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy
- Blowing the Roof Off the Twenty-First Century: Media, Politics, and the Struggle for Post-Capitalist Democracy
- Dollarocracy: How Billionaires Are Buying Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It (with John Nichols)
- Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy
- The Endless Crisis: How Monopoly-Finance Capital Produces Stagnation and Upheaval from the USA to China (with John Bellamy Foster)
- The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again (with John Nichols)
- Communication Revolution: Critical Junctures and the Future of Media
- The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century
- Global Media: The New Missionaries of Global Capitalism (with Edward S. Herman)
- Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- Scholarly and critical analysisArgumentative style with policy proposals
- Recurring Motifs
- Media ownership and regulationRelationship between capital and democracyImportance of public-interest journalism
Health
-
Glioblastoma不明 — 2025年に死亡Ultimately the cause of death; he died at home in 2025 following illness
Legacy
McChesney was a leading scholar of the political economy of media and a prominent voice in media reform. Through his academic work and public engagement he significantly influenced debates on media ownership, regulation, and the sustainability of journalism.
Quotes
-
It is necessary...that the media system as a whole makes such journalism a realistic expectation for the citizenry.
Source: "Farewell To Journalism", Journalism Practice (2012) (2012)
Trivia
- Founding publisher of the Seattle rock magazine The Rocket in 1979.
- Co-founder of the media reform organization Free Press.
- Hosted the weekly radio program Media Matters on Illinois Public Media from 2002 to 2012.
- Supported Bernie Sanders' 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.
- Died at home in Madison in 2025 from glioblastoma.