corporations, public agencies, and nonprofits, that can virtually function
without citizens, and that citizens have a hard time challenging.

Journalists (a term I use broadly for people who work as newspaper and
magazine reporters, writers, editors, and their radio, television, and now in-
ternet, equivalents) also have less power than is attributed to them. Most peo-
ple do not need the news to live their lives, using it to keep up with the world
except when world-shaking events such as 9/11 take place.

In effect, many citizens do not much want to be informed, in part because
they lack trust in their government's and country's leaders to respond to their
concerns. They also mistrust the news media, in part because journalists de-
vote much of the news to the exploits and pronouncements of the leaders in
which people lack trust.

I am sometimes critical of journalists and today's journalism, but first and
foremost, my analysis targets these structures, the news media, news firms,
and movers and shakers to which they are beholden. I write mostly about na-
tional journalists and news media in general, largely ignoring differences be-
tween print and electronic news media. I also suggest changes in the news
that might help make American democracy more responsive to the citizenry.
But the truly necessary changes are political and economic. For example, in a
society in which giant organizations are influential, citizens may need giant
organizations of their own, and in a country in which economic power spells
political power, economic democracy must be discussed alongside political
democracy.

This book is an extended essay, and its structure resembles that of an onion.
The first and last chapters focus primarily on the country, whereas the four
inner chapters deal with the news media and the journalists. Chapter 1 ex-
amines the place of citizens in the American economy and polity. Chapter 2
analyzes the journalists' place. Chapter 3 lays out some of the problems raised
by journalism's mass production and other traditional practices. Chapter 4
offers observations about the effects of the news on individuals and institu-
tions. Chapter 5 presents my ideas for change in the news media and the fi-
nal chapter, those for moving the country towards a citizens' democracy some
day and a more representative one now.

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