Media in a Capitalist Culture

Abstract

In her article, Media in a Capitalist Culture, Barbara Trent looks at the negative effects that capitalism has on the media and how those effects may be overcome. Trent intertwines personal experience with socio-historical context to give the reader a genuine feel for political filmmaking in a Hollywood dominated world. She describes how her Academy Award winning film The Panama Deception was removed from a Cineplex, even after out-grossing all of the other films there, because Warner Brothers wanted the screen. After an examination of the impact a dominant Hollywood has on local culture around the world, Trent offers three case studies based on three of her documentaries, Destination Nicaragua, Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair, and The Panama Deception as a prescription, or a road map, for negotiating the pitfalls of capitalist culture. Her personal experience as an Academy Award winning director who has faced enormous difficulty working outside major media circuits offers a unique perspective on how the mass media resists alternative views of society. Barbara Trent, Media in a Capitalist page 2 of 10 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 9.1 (2007): Thematic Issue, Representing Humanity in an Age of Terror. Ed. Sophia A. McClennen and Henry James Morello