Book Review

Robert W McChesney’s Digital Disconnect provides a very much needed look into the negative effects that the internet has had on our society. McChesney shows how capitalism, the very system that allowed democracy to be created, is actually democracy’s biggest threat. By providing a very detailed framework with which to evaluate the Political Economy combined with an easy to understand writing style, scholars and common consumers can use this book to question the decisions of the government regarding monopolies and the internet. In addition, this book is a sobering take on the much heralded Network Society, and points out the crucial flaws in the system that need to be fixed or removed before it is too late. 

Check out Digital Disconnect on Amazon.

Additional reviews for Digital Disconnect:

“No one knows this field better than McChesney, and with this book he has reached the pinnacle.”
     —Matthew Rothschild, senior editor of The Progressive

"Filtering the internet through a lens of political economy and free-market capitalism, acclaimed author and University of Illinois professor McChesney (Rich Media, Poor Democracy) presents a thorough and alarming critique of the corruption of one of the most influential inventions in human history."
     —Publishers Weekly

In his latest book, Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism Is Turning the Internet Against Democracy (The New Press, March 2013), Robert W. McChesney takes the deep plunge into the murky waters of a digital revolution––originally developed for the many––that’s been increasingly misappropriated by the few.
     —Boiling Frogs

McChesney sets himself the task of providing this much needed “appreciation” and does so by describing the “catechisms” (as he terms them) that prop up faith in capitalism, as well as the beliefs that support the commonly held view of commercial media.
     —Librarian Shipwreck