Listening Post - Obama's inauguration - 23 Jan 09 - Part 2

Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks at the future of the American media under President Obama's tenure. Across the American media spectrum, people are already talking about what changes his administration will make to the rules of the news game in the US. They are talking about corporate concentration how many newspapers and news networks are in the hands of so few corporations and how, in the case of the coverage of the run up to the Iraq war the lack of alternative viewpoints can have disastrous consequences. We will try to dissect what people are talking about versus the changes we can actually expect.

In this week's Newsbytes: A Mexican entrepreneur and a former KGB agent come to the rescue of two famous newspapers, the New York Times and London's Evening Standard. A Nepalese reporter is murdered for reporting on the country's dowry system. Pakistani MPs seek a ban on Indian TV programmes and Chinese professionals accuse state-owned China Central Television of being propaganda mouthpiece.

Finally, our internet Video of the Week comes from the human rights organisation Amnesty International, which has come up with a spoof commercial on Obama's first 100 days in office. The viral ad is part of a "100-day campaign" to get the public to sign an online petition on human rights issues.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jan/16/barack-obama-amnesty-international-ad