It is no secret that the goal of corporate-owned media is to increase the profits of the few, not to

empower the many. With the corporatization and deregulation of media under neoliberal
capitalism, journalism's role as a means for people to keep political and corporate power
subordinate to the common good has been drastically compromised. Written by media scholars
Mickey Huff and Nolan Higdon, the 2019 book United States of Distraction: Media
Manipulation in Post-Truth America (and What We Can Do About It) not only offers a concise
appraisal of the current situation, but also identifies what we can do to restore factual, fair,
inclusive, and empowering journalism.

Based on this book, Project Censored, the Media Freedom Foundation, and Hole in the Media
Productions produced the documentary film United States of Distraction: Fighting the Fake
News Invasion (2020). The film provides a useful introduction to the course, and it is available
on independent news channel The Real News Network, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A
with some of the filmmakers and participants (optional learning resource):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa4uVohP-Tw

Produced by independent news platform MintPress News, the following videos feature
interviews with the authors Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff , conducted by journalists Alan
MacLeod and Mnar Adley in 2021 and 2022. They discuss many of the topics we have ahead of
us, including social media, corporate ownership, propaganda, censorship, fake news, and media
echo chambers (optional learning resources):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoORjX0TNTc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFjQTaZuDc4