The Daily Planet: A Critic on the Capitalist Culture Beat. - Review - book review

Progressive, The, August, 2000 by Rachel Kranz

The Daily Planet: A Critic on the Capitalist Culture Beat by Patricia Aufderheide University of Minnesota. 376 pages. $19.95 (paper).

Fans of Pat Aufderheide's cultural criticism--which encompasses movie reviews, reporting on telecommunications policy, coverage of alternative video, and analysis of media education--will welcome this lively and provocative collection of her most important critical essays of the last decade (some of which originally appeared in The Progressive).

Newcomers to her work will be struck by the breadth of her concerns as well as the coherence of her vision. Whether looking at trends in movies about Vietnam vets, describing Paul Harvey and his "culture of resentment," reporting on the changing aesthetic strategies of leftwing Latin American filmmakers, or analyzing the potential of public TV, Aufderheide continues to ask the big questions: What is the public sphere? How is that sphere shaped by culture and media--both "mainstream" and "alternative"? What can we learn about our society from paying attention to media and culture? And, most importantly, what possibilities might exist for intervening in that culture?

Over the past quarter-century, Aufderheide has had various careers, including culture editor of In These Times, film critic, policy analyst, Latin Americanist, and professor at the School of Communications at American University. This background gives her a broad perspective with an international flavor and a strong sense of history--attributes that seem particularly important as we struggle to understand our relationship to capitalist culture.