An insider view of media complicity with power
With financial crises rippling perpetually around the world, governments' serial failures to find effective responses have put political systems themselves in the dock.
For Western representative democracies, that means people waking up to the illusion of influence in occasional votes versus their lack of any real power. They find instead how money acts via corporations, financial markets and a minority elite to occupy the vacuum.
Fraudcast News, the confessions of ex-Reuters reporter Patrick Chalmers, dissects our media's blindness and inattention to people's powerlessness. It shows how journalism, far from acting as a popular watchdog, suffers just the same problems of capture as governments.
Yet Fraudcast News is a work of optimism. It shows how ordinary citizens can revolutionise their democracies by revolutionising journalism, building from the grassroots upwards.
"For me, a truly great book is one that stays in your thoughts for a long time after reading it. I thought about this book daily for months after finishing it, because its main argument seems to be at the root of almost every injustice in the world."
Mat Ward, Green Left Weekly
Get the book now
Fraudcast News
Paperback, 238 pages, February 2012
Author's note:
I've published the book independently, meaning I can give away free PDFs if I want to, which I do. It also means I need all the promotional help I can get from friends, family and anyone else who wishes for more accountable journalism and politics in their lives.
Any assistance is welcome. You could just forward this page link to your friends, or copy and paste its contents into an email. You could review and rate the book online here, "follow" me on Twitter (@PatrickChalmers), "like" the book on Facebook or subscribe and follow the Fraudcast News blog.
If you get really carried away, you could get me to do an author's reading, short film screening, book signing and Q+A session. If geography's a challenge, you might arrange for me to do a skype phone or video interview with your local newspaper, radio or television station. Maybe you have other ideas for stunts I could try - though I draw the line at invading sovereign nations just because they've got things I want.
