Anthony R. Dimaggio Knihy

In this fresh and provocative book, Anthony DiMaggio uses the war in Iraq and the United States confrontations with Iran as his touchstones to probe the sometimes fine line between news and propaganda. Using Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and drawing upon the seminal works of Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, and Robert McChesney, DiMaggio combines a rigorousempirical analysis and clear, lucid prose to enlighten readers about issues essential to the struggle for a critical media and a functioning democracy. If, as DiMaggio shows, our newspapers and television news programs play a decisive role in determining what we think, and if, as he demonstrates convincingly, what the media give us is largely propaganda that supports an oppressive and undemocratic status quo, then it is incumbent upon us to make sure that they are responsive to the majority and not just the powerful and privileged few.

What to make of the Tea Party? To some, it is a grassroots movementaiming to reclaim an out-of-touch government for the people.To others, it is a proto-fascist organization of the misinformed andmanipulated lower middle class. Either way, it is surely one of themost significant forms of reaction in the age of Obama. In this definitive socio-political analysis of the Tea Party, AnthonyDiMaggio examines the Tea Party phenomenon, using a vast arrayof primary and secondary sources as well as first-hand observation.He traces the history of the Tea Party and analyzes its organizationalstructure, membership, ideological coherence, and relationship tothe mass media. And, perhaps most importantly, he asks: is it reallya movement or just a form of "manufactured dissent" engineeredby capital? DiMaggio's conclusions are thoroughly documented, surprising, and bring much needed clarity to a highly controversialsubject.

Modern presidents have considerable power in selling U.S. foreign policy objectives to the public. In "Selling War, Selling Hope," Anthony R. DiMaggio documents how presidents often make use of the media to create a positive informational environment that, at least in the short term, successfully builds public support for policy proposals. Using timely case studies with a focus on the Arab Spring and the U.S. "War on Terror" in the Middle East and surrounding regions, DiMaggio explains how official spin is employed to construct narratives that are sympathetic to U.S. officialdom. The mass media, rather than exhibiting independence when it comes to reporting foreign policy issues, is regularly utilized as a political tool for selling official proposals. The marginalization of alternative, critical viewpoints poses a significant obstacle to informed public deliberations on foreign policy issues. In the long run, however, the packaging of official narrative and its delivery by the media begins to unravel as citizens are able to make use of alternative sources of information and assert their independence from official viewpoints

The book examines the evolution of social movements in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, highlighting significant uprisings such as the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter. It explores the dynamics of political populism, including Bernie Sanders' campaign and the anti-Trump resistance, as well as the #MeToo movement. Through this lens, it analyzes the impact of growing inequality and the influence of plutocratic governance on contemporary activism and societal change.