Project Censored

Last updated
Project Censored
Founded1976
FounderCarl Jensen
Type 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Purpose Journalism, independent media, freedom of speech, solutions journalism
Location
Mickey Huff (director)
Website www.projectcensored.org

Project Censored is an American nonprofit media watchdog organization. [1] The group's stated mission is to "educate students and the public about the importance of a truly free press for democratic self-government." [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Project Censored produces an annual book, published by Seven Stories Press and the Censored Press, and a weekly radio program. Both the annual books and the weekly radio programs, as well as public events sponsored by the Project, focus on issues of news censorship, propaganda, free speech, and politics.

Project Censored was founded at Sonoma State University in 1976 by Carl Jensen (1923-2017). [5] Since 2010, Mickey Huff has been the group's director. [6] It is sponsored by the Media Freedom Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, established in 2000. The organization is based in Fair Oaks, California.

History

Project Censored was founded in 1976 by Carl Jensen, Associate Professor of Media Studies at Sonoma State College, as a media research program. [7] [8] The project focused on student media literacy and critical thinking skills as applied to the US news media censorship. [9]

Corporate media reporters, editors, and executives[ who? ] lampooned Jensen for claiming they "censored" news stories. They argued that the stories were not censored, but that due to time and space constraints, they could not publish every story. Jensen began an annual study that found that, rather than covering newsworthy stories, the corporate media often featured trivial and non-newsworthy stories, which Jensen termed "junk food news" in a 1983 interview published in Penthouse . [10] Since the first Censored yearbook, published in 1993, each annual Censored volume has featured a chapter dedicated to exposing examples of what Jensen originally identified as "junk food news".

In 1996, when Jensen retired, Peter Phillips, also a sociology professor at Sonoma State University, became director of Project Censored. He continued to expand the Project's educational outreach and the annual book, adding the concept and analysis of "News Abuse" to elaborate Jensen's idea of "junk food" news. [11] "News abuse" refers to corporate media stories that were newsworthy, but presented in a slanted or non-newsworthy manner. [12]

In 2000, Project Censored came under the oversight of the non-profit Media Freedom Foundation, founded by Jensen and Phillips to ensure its independence. In 2007, two of Project Censored judges resigned due to then-director Peter Phillips' decision to invite Steven E. Jones, a 9/11 Truth conspiracy theorist, as the keynote speaker to the Project's annual conference. [13]

Mickey Huff, director of Project Censored, at the Action in Media Education Summit in April 2016 at Sacred Heart University. MickeyHuff-April2016-SacredHeart.png
Mickey Huff, director of Project Censored, at the Action in Media Education Summit in April 2016 at Sacred Heart University.

Mickey Huff of Diablo Valley College became director in 2010. [14] He and associate director Andy Lee Roth have extended the Project beyond Sonoma State University and expanded the Campus Affiliates Program launched in 2009. [15] [16] The top "Censored" news stories are identified through the Campus Affiliates Program, a collaborative effort between faculty and students at many colleges and universities. [17]

Activities

Publications

Since 1993, Project Censored has published its annual list of the most under-reported news stories in the form of a book. Since 1996, Seven Stories Press in New York has published each annual Censored book, totaling 27 volumes . [18] The first Project Censored yearbook, Censored: The News That Didn’t Make the News—And Why, edited by Carl Jensen, was published by Shelburne Press in 1993. [19] Two subsequent volumes, the 1994 and 1995 yearbooks, were published by Four Walls, Eight Windows. [20]

The most recent yearbook, State of the Free Press 2023, includes a foreword by Heidi Boghosian and is the second to be jointly published by Seven Stories Press and Project Censored's own publishing imprint, the Censored Press. State of the Free Press 2023 describes itself as "[a]pplying the critical media literacy tools Project Censored has championed since 1976." The book "exposes how the corporate media's focus on 'humilitainment' and 'false balance' leads to slanted news, info-free clickbait, and censorship" while advancing "remedies for a more robust free press" and providing "inspiring models for grassroots engagement." State of the Free Press includes the Project's list of what the group considers to be the most significant but under-reported news stories of 2021-2022.

In addition to being included in the Censored book series, the organization's annual listing of the most significant but under-reported news stories, dating back to 1976, is archived on the Project Censored website. [21] Previous years' "Censored" lists have been featured in U.S. national media outlets. [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28]

Radio program

Since 2010, Project Censored has produced a weekly public affairs program originating from KPFA in Berkeley, California, part of the Pacifica Foundation. The Project Censored Radio Show is syndicated on 40 radio stations across North America. [29]

Documentary films

Project Censored has been the subject of two feature-length documentary films. In 2013, Doug Hecker and Christopher Oscar produced and directed Project Censored: The Movie: Ending the Reign of Junk Food News. [30] [31] The film features interviews with and commentary by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Dan Rather, Phil Donahue, Michael Parenti, Greg Palast, Oliver Stone, Daniel Ellsberg, Peter Kuznick, Cynthia McKinney, Nora Barrows-Friedman, John Perkins, Jonah Raskin, Khalil Bendib, Abby Martin, and faculty and students associated with Project Censored.

Project Censored: The Movie screened at numerous film festivals, including its premiere at the Sonoma International Film Festival in April 2013, the Bend Film Festival in October 2013, and the Madrid International Film Festival in July 2013, where Doug Hecker and Christopher Oscar were recognized for Best Directing of a Feature Documentary. [32] [33]

In 1998, Differential Films released Project Censored: Is the Press Really Free?, directed and produced by Steven Keller. In May 2000, Project Censored: Is the Press Really Free? aired on PBS stations across the United States. [34]

Reception

In 2000, the founder of the progressive news analysis and commentary website AlterNet criticized Project Censored as "stuck in the past" with a "dubious selection process" that "reinforces self-marginalizing, defeatist behavior". [35] It has also been criticized for reporting on stories that are arguably not "under-reported" or "censored" at all, as they have appeared in The New York Times and other such high-profile publications. [36]

The use of the term "censorship" to describe under-reported items, rather than governmentally censored material, has been called into question. [37] William Powers, writing in The New Republic called this broad use of the term "pernicious and deceptive." [38]

Project Censored stories have been cited in both national and international media. [39] [40] China News has referenced their work in an editorial criticizing U.S. press practices. [41] Iranian State News has also cited their work on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to criticize U.S. foreign policy. [42]

Ralph Nader described Project Censored as "a deep, wide and utterly engrossing exercise to unmask censorship, self-censorship, and propaganda in the mass media." [43] In December 2013, Nader selected Censored 2014: Fearless Speech in Fateful Times as one of his "10 Books to Provoke Conversation" in 2014. [44]

Awards

In 2008, Project Censored received PEN Oakland's Censorship award. [45]

In July 2014, Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth received the National Whistleblowers Center's Pillar Award for New Media on behalf of Project Censored.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

Junk food news is a sardonic term for news stories that deliver "sensationalized, personalized, and homogenized inconsequential trivia", especially when such stories appear at the expense of serious investigative journalism. It implies a criticism of the mass media for disseminating news that, while not very nourishing, is "cheap to produce and profitable for media proprietors."

Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own discourse. This is done out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities or preferences of others and without overt pressure from any specific party or institution of authority. Self-censorship is often practiced by film producers, film directors, publishers, news anchors, journalists, musicians, and other kinds of authors including individuals who use social media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index on Censorship</span> Campaigning publishing organisation

Index on Censorship is an organisation campaigning for freedom of expression, which produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association with the UK-registered charity Index on Censorship, which are both chaired by the British television broadcaster, writer and former politician Trevor Phillips. Index is based at 1 Rivington Place in central London.

World Press Photo Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1955, the organization holds the annual World Press Photo Contest for press photography. Since 2011, World Press Photo has organized a separate annual contest for journalistic multimedia productions, and, in association with Human Rights Watch, the annual Tim Hetherington Grant.

Censorship in South Korea is implemented by various laws that were included in the constitution as well as acts passed by the National Assembly over the decades since 1948. These include the National Security Act, whereby the government may limit the expression of ideas that it perceives "praise or incite the activities of anti-state individuals or groups". Censorship was particularly severe during the country's authoritarian era, with freedom of expression being non-existent, which lasted from 1948 to 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Coalition Against Censorship</span>

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), founded in 1974, is an alliance of 50 American non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. NCAC is a New York–based organization with official 501(c)(3) status in the United States. The coalition seeks to defend freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression from censorship and threats of censorship through education and outreach, and direct advocacy. NCAC assists individuals, community groups, and institutions with strategies and resources for resisting censorship and creating a climate hospitable to free expression. It also encourages the publicizing of cases of censorship and has a place to report instances of censorship on the organization's website. Their annual fundraiser is called the Free Speech Defender Awards. The main goal of the organization is to defend the first amendment, freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression. NCAC's website contains reports of censorship incidents, analysis and discussion of free expression issues, a database of legal cases in the arts, an archive of NCAC's quarterly newsletter, a blog, and Censorpedia, a crowdsourced wiki. In fiscal year 2017, the organization earned a 95.93% rating by Charity Navigator, an organization that assesses the efficacy of nonprofits.

Censorship in the People's Republic of China is mandated by the PRC's ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is one of the strictest censorship regimes in the world. The government censors content for mainly political reasons, such as curtailing political opposition, and censoring events unfavorable to the CCP, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, pro-democracy movements in China, the persecution of Uyghurs in China, human rights in Tibet, Falun Gong, pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since Xi Jinping became the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, censorship has been "significantly stepped up".

Google and its subsidiary companies, such as YouTube, have removed or omitted information from its services in order to comply with company policies, legal demands, and government censorship laws.

<i>Syndromes and a Century</i> 2006 Thai film

Syndromes and a Century is a 2006 Thai drama film written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The film was among the works commissioned for Peter Sellars' New Crowned Hope festival in Vienna to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It premiered on August 30, 2006 at the 63rd Venice Film Festival.

Corporate censorship is censorship by corporations. It is when a spokesperson, employer, or business associate sanctions a speaker's speech by threat of monetary loss, employment loss, or loss of access to the marketplace. It is present in many different kinds of industries.

Censorship in Israel is officially carried out by the Israeli Military Censor, a unit in the Israeli government officially tasked with carrying out preventive censorship regarding the publication of information that might affect the security of Israel. The body is headed by the Israeli Chief Censor, a military official appointed by Israel's Minister of Defense, who bestows upon the Chief Censor the authority to suppress information he deems compromising from being made public in the media, such as Israel's nuclear weapons program and Israel's military operations outside its borders. On average, 2240 press articles in Israel are censored by the Israeli Military Censor each year, approximately 240 of which in full, and around 2000 partially.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Censorship</span> Suppression of speech or other information

Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments, private institutions, and other controlling bodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Book censorship</span> Book removed or banned from public and/or private usage

Book censorship is the act of some authority taking measures to suppress ideas and information within a book. Censorship is "the regulation of free speech and other forms of entrenched authority". Censors typically identify as either a concerned parent, community members who react to a text without reading, or local or national organizations. Books have been censored by authoritarian dictatorships to silence dissent, such as the People's Republic of China, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Books are most often censored for age appropriateness, offensive language, sexual content, amongst other reasons. Similarly, religions may issue lists of banned books, such as the historical example of the Roman Catholic Church's Index Librorum Prohibitorum and bans of such books as Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses by Ayatollah Khomeini, which do not always carry legal force. Censorship can be enacted at the national or subnational level as well, and can carry legal penalties. In many cases, the authors of these books could face harsh sentences, exile from the country, or even execution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abby Martin</span> American citizen journalist

Abigail Suzanne Martin is an American journalist, TV presenter, and activist. She helped found the citizen journalism website Media Roots and serves on the board of directors for the Media Freedom Foundation which manages Project Censored. Martin appeared in the documentary film Project Censored The Movie: Ending the Reign of Junk Food News (2013), and co-directed 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (2013).

The censorship of student media in the United States is the suppression of student-run news operations' free speech by school administrative bodies, typically state schools. This consists of schools using their authority to control the funding and distribution of publications, taking down articles, and preventing distribution. Some forms of student media censorship extend to expression not funded by or under the official auspices of the school system or college.

Project Censored the Movie: Ending The Reign of Junkfood News is a 2013 documentary film about the news media in the United States written and directed by Christopher Oscar and Doug Hecker. The film is based on the work by Project Censored, a media organization at Sonoma State University that publishes under-reported news stories. It was released in April 2013 at the Sonoma International Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass media in Qatar</span>

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Censorship in the Czech Republic had been highly active until 17 November 1989 and the fall of Communism in the former Czechoslovakia. Czech Republic was ranked as the 13th most free country in the World Press Freedom Index in 2014.

Nolan Higdon is a critical media literacy scholar and media personality. He is also an author and university lecturer of history and media studies. Higdon has been a lecturer at University of California, Santa Cruz and California State University, East Bay. Higdon is considered an expert in critical media literacy, digital culture, higher education, journalism, fake news, and news media history. Higdon is frequently featured as an expert voice in documentaries and news outlets such as ABC, CBS, CNBC, NewsNation, NBC, New York Times, PBS, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

References

  1. ↑ Morris, J.D. (October 21, 2016). "Project Censored celebrates 40 years as media watchdog". Press Democrat. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  2. ↑ "The Project Censored Mission". Project Censored. January 26, 2018.
  3. ↑ Yasuda, Kana (3 May 2015). "Project Censored confronts "fake news" phenomenon". Golden Gate Xpress: The Student News Site of San Francisco State University. Retrieved 24 April 2023.
  4. ↑ "Media overlook important news, researchers say". East Bay Times. November 27, 2007. Retrieved Feb 14, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Project Censored founder Carl Jensen dies at 85". Santa Rosa Press Democrat. 2015-04-25. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
  6. ↑ Huff, Mickey; Phillips, Peter, eds. (2010). Censored 2011 : the top 25 censored stories (1st ed.). New York: Seven Stories Press. ISBN   978-1583229200. OCLC   601133039.
  7. ↑ Morrow, Frank (1984). The U.S. Power Structure and the Mass Media. ark:/13960/t5j962f5k Ph.D dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin "chapter 4".
  8. ↑ Payne, Paul (April 26, 2015). "Project Censored founder Carl Jensen dies at 85". The Press Democrat. Retrieved Feb 14, 2018.
  9. ↑ Jensen, Carl (1996). Censored 20th Anniversary Edition: The 1996 Project Censored Yearbook. New York: Seven Stories Press. pp. 14–15.
  10. ↑ Jenson, Carl (2001). Censored 2001. Seven Stories Press. pp. 251–264. ISBN   978-1-58322-064-1.
  11. ↑ Hale, Corey (2016). News Abuse of 1999," Censored 2000: The Year's Top Censored Stories. New York: Seven Stories. pp. 157–163.
  12. ↑ Nolan Higdon, Mickey Huff (2016). Junk Food News and News Abuse: A Brief History," Censored 2017: Fortieth Anniversary Edition, ed. Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth with Project Censored. New York: Seven Stories. pp. 149–151.
  13. ↑ Stelzer, CD (August 1, 2007). "Two Project Censored judges resign over 9/11 controversy". St. Louis Journalism Review. 37 (298): 20–22.
  14. ↑ Fancher, Lou (March 26, 2014). "Walnut Creek: 'Project Censored' leaders discuss work, new film". The Mercury News. Retrieved Feb 14, 2018.
  15. ↑ "About Validated Independent News -". Project Censored. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  16. ↑ "Project Censored Turns 40". SSU News. 2016-12-13. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  17. ↑ Andy Lee Roth and, Mickey Huff (2017). Censored 2018: Press Freedoms in a "Post-Truth" World. New York: Seven Stories Press. pp. 36, 39–40.
  18. ↑ "Seven Stories Press". sevenstories.com. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  19. ↑ Jensen, Carl (1993). Censored : the news that didn't make the news--and why (1st ed.). Chapel Hill, NC: Shelburne Press. ISBN   1882680006. OCLC   27810906.
  20. ↑ Jensen, Carl (1995). Censored : the news that didn't make the news--and why : the 1995 project censored yearbook (1st ed.). New York: Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN   1568580304. OCLC   32779730.
  21. ↑ "Top 25 Archive -". Project Censored. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  22. ↑ Goodman, Hal (1994). "A Creaky Soapbox". Across the Board. Vol. 31, no. 7. p. 58.
  23. ↑ "Project Censored". Editor & Publisher. Vol. 122, no. 23. June 10, 1989. p. 42.
  24. ↑ "Project Censored". Editor & Publisher. Vol. 119, no. 26. June 28, 1986. p. 19.
  25. ↑ "The Most 'Spiked' Stories". Editor & Publisher. Vol. 124, no. 4. Jan 26, 1991. p. 28.
  26. ↑ Klotzer, Charles L. (Oct 2006). "Only the polluted tip of the iceberg". The St. Louis Journalism Review. Vol. 36, no. 290. pp. 28–29.
  27. ↑ Stuttaford, Genevieve; Simson, Maria; Zaleski, Jeff (Oct 13, 1997). "20 Years of Censored News". Publishers Weekly. 244 (42): 62.
  28. ↑ Rosenberg, Paul (2021-11-25). "Project Censored, Part 1: The New Normal Is More Normalized Censorship". The American Prospect. Retrieved 2022-02-23.
  29. ↑ "The Project Censored Radio Show -". Project Censored. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  30. ↑ "About the Movement: The Film". Project Censored. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  31. ↑ Hecker, Doug; Oscar, Christopher (2013-04-12), Project Censored the Movie, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Khalil Bendib, Nora Burrows-Friedman, retrieved 2018-02-05
  32. ↑ ""AMOROUS PANCHO VILLA" "A COMMON MAN" Win Top Awards at 2013 Madrid International Film Festival | VIMOOZ". VIMOOZ. 2013-07-15. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  33. ↑ http://www.sonomafilmfest.org/2013-film-festival-awards_film-festival-news_7466.html [ dead link ]
  34. ↑ Hausman, Tate (2000-04-25). "Project Censored, the Movie". AlterNet. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  35. ↑ Hazen, Don (2000-03-31). "Beyond Project Censored: It's Time for a New Award". AlterNet. Archived from the original on July 8, 2004. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  36. ↑ "The Unbearable Lameness of Project Censored". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  37. ↑ Lehrer, Eli (1998). "The great alternative press". Vol. 9, no. 3. The American Enterprise. pp. 15–16.
  38. ↑ Powers, William (July 7, 1997). "Censor this". The New Republic. Vol. 217, no. 1. pp. 15–16.
  39. ↑ Ivans, Molly (September 22, 2005). "Greatest sin in today's media is laziness rather than bias". Contra Costa Times.
  40. ↑ Stein, M L (Jan 30, 1993). "Project Censored". Editor & Publisher. Vol. 126, no. 5. p. 16.
  41. ↑ Hua, Sheng (Nov 15, 2014). "Whither freedom of the US press". China Daily. Retrieved Feb 14, 2018.
  42. ↑ "Iran rejects importing radio equipment". Iranian State News. October 27, 2011.
  43. ↑ Roth, Andrew Lee; Huff, Mickey (2014-10-07). Censored 2015 : inspiring We the people : the top censored stories and media analysis of 2013-2014 (1st ed.). New York. ISBN   978-1609805654. OCLC   868199592.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  44. ↑ Nader, Ralph (2013-12-31). "10 Books to Provoke Conversation in the New Year". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  45. ↑ "Awards & Award Winners". PEN Oakland. Archived from the original on 2019-05-14. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
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