Media Scholar: Challenging Media To Hold the U.S. Empire Accountable

Update on Robert Jensen Lecture. Robert Jensen, University of Texas journalism professor and author of Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim our Humanity, will speak on “Challenging Media to Hold the U.S. Empire Accountable” at Rochester Institute of Technology at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 21, in Webb Auditorium.

Jensen is also offering a workshop, “A Word In Edgewise: Working with Mainstream Media,” 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Jan. 22, at 30 North Union St., Rochester. The workshop covers the basics of working with journalists and the news media, including news releases, news conferences and event planning; strategies to use when interviewed by media; and effective letter and op/ed writing.

Robert Jensen, University of Texas journalism professor and author of Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim our Humanity, will speak on “Challenging Media to Hold the U.S. Empire Accountable” at Rochester Institute of Technology at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 21, in Webb Auditorium.

Jensen is also offering a workshop, “A Word In Edgewise: Working with Mainstream Media,” 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Jan. 22, at 30 North Union St., Rochester. The workshop covers the basics of working with journalists and the news media, including news releases, news conferences and event planning; strategies to use when interviewed by media; and effective letter and op/ed writing.

The lecture is free and open to the public. There is a $10 fee for the workshop, with scholarships available. (Workshop space is limited. Call 325-2560 to make your reservation.)

Both the lecture and the workshop are sponsored by Metro Justice (see http://metrojustic.org ).

Jensen is no stranger to controversy.

A conservative commentator recently called for the creation of a Robert Jensen Deportation Fund, after Jensen published an article arguing that U.S. defeat in Iraq — which Jensen saw as already occurring — would be a good thing.

In the article Jensen said he was not suggesting that the loss of American or Iraqi lives was to be celebrated. Instead, he argued, the tragedy of those deaths is made worse because they have neither protected the United States nor brought freedom to the Iraqis.

Jensen said he welcomed a U.S. defeat in Iraq because the war was not about extending democracy but about extending the U.S. empire. That empire is does not involve ownership of foreign lands but rather controlling the flow of oil, he added.

The United States has a long history of supporting reactionary regimes, Jensen argued, when that support enables the control of resources that make U.S. capitalism profitable, with oil being the top priority.

The role that media consolidation plays in the promotion and maintenance of that empire -- and what people can do about it -- will be the topic of Jensen’s lecture.

Jensen joined the University of Texas at Austin faculty in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. on media law and ethics in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in media law, ethics, and politics. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a professional journalist for a decade.

In his research, Jensen draws on a variety of critical theories. Much of his work has focused on pornography and the radical feminist critique of sexuality. In more recent work, he has addressed questions of race through a critique of white privilege and institutionalized racism.

In addition to teaching and research, Jensen writes for popular media, both alternative and mainstream. His opinion and analytic pieces on such subjects as foreign policy, politics, and race have appeared in papers around the country. He also is involved in a number of activist groups working against U.S. military and economic domination of the rest of the world.

For more information about Robert Jensen:

Jensen homepage: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/home.htm

Excerpts and more reviews of Citizens of the Empire: http://tinyurl.com/5szh5

Recent articles: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/%7Erjensen/freelance/freelance.htm

Brief reviews of Robert Jensen’s Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim our Humanity (City Lights Publishers, 2004):

“A few pages into this slim manifesto, it’s clear that Jenson’s latest offering is a heavy critique of the U.S.’s post 9/11 policy, the war on terror and George W. Bush. It would be remiss, however, to reduce this work to mere complaint. Jensen, a journalism professor at the Univ. of Texas, Austin, delivers a concise, telling, first-person account of what he argues is the ‘alienation and isolation that so many feel in the face of the triumphalism common in the country’ since the attacks. He questions why America has developed such ‘an incredibly degraded political culture’ and criticizes U.S. academic institutions for their ‘unwillingness to take seriously their role as centers of knowledge and their refusal to create space for debate and discussion.’ It is up to the citizens of the empire, Jensen says, to ‘build movements that can transform people’s opposition into political power.’ That sounds like a tall order, but Jensen’s use of personal anecdotes, analogies and in-your-face common sense makes the reading easy and his request sound doable, even logical. Jensen’s premise gains momentum as he correlates the increase of American civil liberties to decreased public participation, reminding readers that the ‘degree to which a society is democratic also can be judged by how extensive and active are citizens’ attempts to participate in the formation of public policy.’ He couples his opinions with a solution for those progressive thinkers who want to help, making the book a sort of handbook for people who are looking for new ways to engage fully in the democratic process of citizenship.” -- Publisher’s Weekly

“Robert Jensen does more than challenge us to think and feel -- he also encourages us to transform our lives. While Citizens of the Empire provides cogent information and analysis, the book also offers real clarity about the emotional imperatives of coming to terms with grim aspects of the status quo. At the same time that he demolishes media myths about the “war on terrorism,’ Jensen takes apart key mechanisms of propaganda, militarism and convenient illusions. Midway through the first decade of the 21st century, this book will jolt readers into a truer reckoning with their own beliefs and capabilities. Jensen makes a powerful case that we can stop being passive spectators and start being active co-creators of history. Citizens of the Empire is a book of realism and hope -- a strong antidote to the poisons of conformity and despair.”-- Norman Solomon, co-author, Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy

Robert Jensen Biography

Robert Jensen joined the University of Texas at Austin faculty in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. on media law and ethics in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in media law, ethics and politics. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a professional journalist for a decade.

In his research, Jensen draws on a variety of critical theories. Much of his work has focused on pornography and the radical feminist critique of sexuality. In more recent work, he has addressed questions of race through a critique of white privilege and institutionalized racism.

Jensen is the author of Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004); Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (Peter Lang, 2002); co-author with Gail Dines and Ann Russo of Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (Routledge, 1998); and co-editor with David S. Allen of Freeing the First Amendment: Critical Perspectives on Freedom of Expression (New York University Press, 1995).

In addition to teaching and research, Jensen writes for popular media, both alternative and mainstream. His opinion and analytic pieces on such subjects as foreign policy, politics, and race have appeared in papers around the country. He also is involved in a number of activist groups working against U.S. military and economic domination of the rest of the world.