Robert W. McChesney

{{About|the media studies scholar||Robert McChesney (disambiguation){{!}}Robert McChesney}}

{{Infobox academic

| name = Robert W. McChesney

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_name = Robert Waterman McChesney

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1952|12|22}}

| birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|3|25|1952|12|22}}

| death_place = Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.

| death_cause =

| known_for = {{Unbulleted list|Media criticism|History and political economy of mass communication}}

| alma_mater = {{Unbulleted list|Evergreen State College|University of Washington}}

| workplaces = {{ubl|University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign|University of Wisconsin–Madison}}

| occupation = Professor, author, activist, journalist

| spouse = Inger Stole

| children = 2

| website = {{official URL}}

}}

Robert Waterman McChesney ({{IPAc-en|m|ə|k|ˈ|t|ʃ|ɛ|s|n|i}}; December 22, 1952 – March 25, 2025) was an American professor notable in the history and political economy of communications, and the role media play in democratic and capitalist societies. He was the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[http://www.communication.illinois.edu/people/rwmcches Robert W. McChesney | Department of Communication | University of Illinois] He co-founded Free Press,[http://www.freepress.net Free Press website], freepress.net; accessed April 13, 2015. a national media reform organization. From 2002 to 2012, he hosted Media Matters,{{cite web|url=http://will.illinois.edu/mediamatters|title=Media Matters | Illinois Public Media|date=October 7, 2012 |publisher=Will.illinois.edu|access-date=August 1, 2013}} a weekly radio program every Sunday afternoon on WILL (AM), Illinois Public Media radio.

Background and education

McChesney was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 22, 1952, to Samuel Parker McChesney, an advertising salesman for This Week magazine, and his wife Edna Margaret "Meg" (née McCorkle) McChesney, a nurse.{{cite web|url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KR4X-GFM|title=United States Public Records, 1970-2009|publisher=FamilySearch|access-date=March 10, 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.courant.com/1998/03/10/mcchesney-samuel-parker-jr/|title=Mcchesney, Samuel Parker Jr.|publisher=Hartford Courant|access-date=March 10, 2017|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://archive.today/20170511025123/http://articles.courant.com/1998-03-10/news/9803100221_1_montserrat-memorial-service-east-berlin|archive-date=May 11, 2017}}{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/business/media/robert-w-mcchesney-dead.html|title = Robert W. McChesney, Who Warned of Corporate Media Control, Dies at 72|last = Gabriel|first = Trip|date = April 8, 2025|accessdate = April 8, 2025|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}} He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and attended The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where he studied history and political economy.{{cite web|url=http://blogs.evergreen.edu/evergreenmind/robert-mcchesney-79-on-tour-with-new-book-dollarocracy|title=Robert McChesney '77 on Tour with New Book: "Dollarocracy"|date=October 30, 2013 |publisher=The Evergreen Mind|access-date=March 10, 2017}}

Career

After college, McChesney worked for a time as a sports stringer for United Press International (UPI) and published a weekly newspaper. In 1979, he was the founding publisher of The Rocket, a Seattle-based rock music magazine that chronicled the birth of the Seattle rock scene of the late 1980s and 1990s.{{cite web|url=http://robertmcchesney.org/curriculum-vitae/professional-experience/|title=Professional Experience - Robert W. McChesney|access-date=March 10, 2017}}

McChesney began to report on the media itself and became an expert in the field, entering academic studies in this area. He did graduate work at the University of Washington, obtaining a PhD in Communications there in 1989.{{cite Q|Q98839525}}. He was the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He also taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

=Assessment of the media=

McChesney said the term "deregulated media" was a misnomer. He described media organizations as a government-sanctioned oligopoly, owned by a few highly profitable corporate entities. They have legislative influence and control news coverage and can distort public understanding of media issues.{{cite news|last=Lendman|first=Stephen|title=Robert McChesney's The Political Economy of Media (Part I)|url=http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/07/robert-mcchesneys-the-political-economy-of-media-part-i/|newspaper=Dissident Voice|date=July 2, 2008}}

In his article "Farewell To Journalism" (October 2012), McChesney described what he considered the deterioration of the current US media system; he said that this freefall threatens the democratic system itself. He highlights what scholars believe to be the key characteristics of healthy journalism, and says, "It is necessary...that the media system as a whole makes such journalism a realistic expectation for the citizenry."{{cite journal|last1=McChesney|first1=Robert|title=Farewell To Journalism?|journal=Journalism Practice|volume=6|issue=5–6|date=October 23, 2012|pages=614–626|doi=10.1080/17512786.2012.683273|s2cid=149010028}}

McChesney proposed a $200 annual Citizenship News Voucher to support journalism.{{Cite web|date=April 5, 2010|title=McChesney and Nichols: $30-billion to save journalism|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mcchesney-and-nichols-30_b_447432|access-date=January 17, 2022|website=HuffPost|language=en}}

A backer of Bernie Sanders's 2016 and 2020 presidential bids, McChesney was critical of how major news outlets covered Sanders's campaigns.

Personal life and death

McChesney and his wife, Inger Stole, had two daughters. He died from glioblastoma at his home in Madison, Wisconsin, on March 25, 2025, at the age of 72.{{cite news |last1=Nichols |first1=John |title=Robert McChesney, the Great Champion of Journalism and Democracy, Has Died |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/robert-mcchesney-obituary/ |access-date=March 27, 2025 |work=The Nation |date=March 27, 2025}}{{cite web |title=Free Press Mourns the Death of Co-Founder and Scholar Robert W. McChesney {{!}} Free Press |url=https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/free-press-mourns-death-co-founder-and-scholar-robert-w-mcchesney |website=www.freepress.net |access-date=March 27, 2025 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Benton |first1=Joshua |title=Robert W. McChesney, America’s leading left-wing critic of corporate media, has died |url=https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/03/robert-w-mcchesney-americas-leading-left-wing-critic-of-corporate-media-has-died/ |access-date=March 29, 2025 |work=Nieman Lab |date=March 27, 2025}}

Bibliography

{{cite book|title=People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wf7cCgAAQBAJ|date=March 8, 2016|publisher=Nation Books|isbn=9781568585215}}
{{cite book|title=Blowing the Roof Off the Twenty-First Century: Media, Politics, and the Struggle for Post-Capitalist Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LdVyBQAAQBAJ|date=October 22, 2014|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-1-58367-478-9}}{{Cite news|url=https://truthout.org/articles/robert-w-mcchesney-capitalism-as-we-know-it-has-got-to-go/|title=Capitalism as We Know It Has Got to Go|last=McChesney|first=Robert W.|work=Truthout|access-date=September 12, 2018|language=en-US}}
{{cite book|last1=Nichols|last2=McChesney|title=Dollarocracy: How Billionaires Are Buying Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGs3AD8HO68C|year=2013|publisher=Nation Books|isbn=978-1-56858-711-0|first1=John|first2=Robert W|author-link=John Nichols (journalist)}}
{{cite book| title=Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy|url=https://archive.org/details/digitaldisconnec2013mcch| url-access=registration|date= March 5, 2013|publisher=New Press|isbn=978-1-59558-891-3}}
{{cite book|last1=Foster|last2=McChesney|title=The Endless Crisis: How Monopoly-Finance Capital Produces Stagnation and Upheaval from the USA to China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lTOtaLd3ypAC|date=September 1, 2012|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-1-58367-314-0|first1=John Bellamy|author-link=John Bellamy Foster|first2=Robert W.}}
{{Cite book|title=The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again|last1=Nichols|first1=John|last2=McChesney|first2=Robert W.|publisher=Nation Books|year=2010|isbn=9781568586052|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/deathlifeofameri0000mcch}}
{{cite book| title=The Political Economy of Media: Enduring Issues, Emerging Dilemmas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IeRWCgAAQBAJ|date=May 1, 2008|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-1-58367-161-0}}
{{Cite book|title=Communication Revolution: Critical Junctures and the Future of Media|publisher=New Press|year=2007|isbn=9781595582072|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/communicationrev0000mcch}}
{{cite book|title=The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century|date=2004|publisher=Monthly Review Press|isbn=978-1583671054|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/problemofmediaus00mcch}}
{{cite book|last1=Herman|first1=Edward S.|last2=McChesney|first2=Robert W.|title=Global Media: The New Missionaries of Global Capitalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NJu27PeypxYC|date=August 27, 2001|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-5819-3|author-link=Edward S. Herman}}
{{cite book| title=Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yImpBgAAQBAJ|date=June 2, 1999|publisher=New Press|isbn=978-1-62097-070-6}}

References

External links

[http://www.pdxjustice.org/node/47 Robert W. McChesney bibliography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200131142150/http://www.pdxjustice.org/node/47 |date=January 31, 2020 }}
Micha Odenheimer, [https://web.archive.org/web/20100726031925/http://acheret.co.il/en/?cmd=articles.323&act=read&id=2041 "Your Free Internet is in Danger", Interview with Professor Robert W. McChesney at acheret.co.il]
{{IMDb name|id=1688257|name=Robert McChesney}}

Category:1952 births

Category:2025 deaths

Category:20th-century American journalists

Category:20th-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American male writers

Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers

Category:Academics from Ohio

Category:American male journalists

Category:American mass media scholars

Category:American media critics

Category:American political writers

Category:American radio personalities