More from the Academe

[Barone, Charles]

>From This Academe Today's DAILY REPORT
for subscribers to The Chronicle of Higher Education
  10/17/96

INTERNET SITE OF THE DAY: Professor uncovers the news "they" don't want 
you to hear.

Alternative News 

Don't believe everything you read. 

Also, don't believe that what you do read tells the whole story. 

That's the opinion of Ben Attias, a communications professor at 
California
State University at Northridge. According to Mr. Attias, the objectivity 
of
mainstream newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media is confounded by 
the
influence of their owners -- corporations that place their economic 
well-being
ahead of impartial reporting. 

"For example, don't expect NBC, owned by G.E., to run stories critical of
G.E.'s nuclear-waste-disposal procedures," he says. "One would expect a
media outlet to serve the interests of its owners," he continues. But for
scholars, journalists, and activists, "alternative sources of information 
are
mandatory." 

Mr. Attias has found many such sources on the Internet and has compiled
them on a World-Wide Web page. The site contains links to dozens of 
sources
of alternative news, government information, and alerts from activists on 
issues
as varied as electronic privacy and the cultural influence of McDonald's
restaurants. Most of the activists take a leftist perspective on the 
news. 

The site devotes special attention to allegations that the Central 
Intelligence
Agency supplied crack cocaine to American inner cities in the 1980s as a
means of financing aid to the Nicaraguan Contra rebels. Mr. Attias says 
the
story has been ignored by the mainstream media for several years and is 
still
overlooked despite an investigation published in the San Jose Mercury 
News
last summer. 

Mr. Attias hopes that by providing an outlet for diverse voices and 
opinions,
the Internet will help the public make more informed decisions. "The
World-Wide Web is one place where anyone can publish information intended
for a mass audience without access to traditional mass-media outlets," he 
says. 

-- Kelly McCollum

Title: Alternative News 
Contact: Ben Attias, hfspc002 at email.csun.edu 

     World-Wide Web: http://www.csun.edu/~hfspc002/news/index.html

Entered on: 10/17/96