Biography
Robert W. McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His work concentrates on the history and political economy of communication, emphasizing the role media play in democratic and capitalist societies. In 2002 McChesney was the co-founder of Free Press, a national media reform organization. He also hosted the "Media Matters" weekly radio program on NPR-affiliate WILL-AM between 2002 and 2012. From 1988 to 1998 he was on the Journalism and Mass Communication faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was selected as one of the top 100 classroom teachers. McChesney has written or edited twenty-seven books, including, most recently, People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy (co-authored with John Nichols);Dollarocracy: How the Money-and Media Election Complex Is Destroying America (with John Nichols); and Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet Away from Democracy. In 2000, McChesney authored the multiple award-winning Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times, which was reissued by The New Press in 2015 with a new preface by the author. His work has been translated into 34 languages.