Robert W. McChesney 伊利諾大學香檳校區傳播系教授，自1993年博士論文出版為專書後，著述日增，其中有兩本在中國大陸已經有翻譯本，《富媒體．窮民主：不確定時代的傳播政治》（1999/2004，謝岳譯，北京：新華出版社），以及《全球媒體：全球資本主義的新傳教士》（與Edward S. Herman合著，1997/2001，甄春亮等譯，天津：人民出版社），作者雖已有論文在1995年於台灣出版，但就書籍來說，本書是第一本正體字譯本。作者曾任《每月評論》（Monthly Review）主編，授課之外，廣泛從事媒體及其他社會革新活動，包括每週主持一次電台節目。

Praise for Robert W. McChesney

"Robert McChesney's work has been of extraordinary importance. . . . It should be read with care and concern by people who care about freedom and basic rights."

Noam Chomsky

"Robert McChesney is one of the nation's most important analysts of the media."

Howard Zinn

The symptoms of the crisis of the U.S. media are well-known—a decline in hard news, the growth of info-tainment and advertorials, staff cuts and concentration of ownership, increasing conformity of viewpoint and suppression of genuine debate. McChesney's new book, The Problem of the Media, gets to the roots of this crisis, explains it, and points a way forward for the growing media reform movement.

Moving consistently from critique to action, the book explores the political economy of the media, illuminating its major flashpoints and controversies by locating them in the political economy of U.S. capitalism. It deals with issues such as the declining quality of journalism, the question of bias, the weakness of the public broadcasting sector, and the limits and possibilities of antitrust legislation in regulating the media. It points out the ways in which the existing media system has become a threat to democracy, and shows how it could be made to serve the interests of the majority.</P>

McChesney's Rich Media, Poor Democracy was hailed as a pioneering analysis of the way in which media had come to serve the interests of corporate profit rather than public enlightenment and debate. Bill Moyers commented, "If Thomas Paine were around, he would have written this book." The Problem of the Media is certain to be a landmark in media studies, a vital resource for media activism, and essential reading for concerned scholars and citizens everywhere.