Project Censored
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Project Censored is a nonprofit, sociological project of an investigative nature within the Sonoma State University Foundation. It is being managed through the School of Social Sciences at Sonoma State University. The principle objectives are the advocacy and protection of the First Amendment rights granted by the United States Constitution and freedom of information within the United States of America. Project Censored identifies and researches underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored stories. The project is built around the Media Censorship, Sociology 435 course. This course requires long hours of researching library databases. It aims for each student to master this skill and make full use of it for the purpose of conducting coverage reports on more than 200 under-published stories. This project actively encourages the development of a national interconnected community-based media news service that will offer a diversity of news and information to local mainstream audiences through various media, such as: print, radio, television, and computer. Support and encouragement is provided to journalists, faculty, and student investigation of the principle objectives as stated above.
To date, the participants number nearly 200 and include: the program staff of the School of Social Sciences at Sonoma State University, its students, its faculty, plus research interns, community experts, funders, and volunteer judges. Major sources of funding are provided by hundreds of individual donors, Working Assets, Anita Roddick, and The Body Shop International, as well as the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, and the School of Social Science at Sonoma State University.
Published Works
Project Censored publishes an annual trade paperback review of the Top 25 Censored Stories of the Year. Features of the hardcopy include Junk Food News, comic strips by Tom Tomorrow, updates on previous top stories, essays, and interviews. It is printed in New York, Toronto, London, and Frenchs Forest (in NSW Australia). Other projects include For the Record, a weekly radio program hosted by Pat Thurston, which features underpublished stories.
Criteria for Project Censored stories
A new story at Project Censored should:
- contain information that the general population has a right and a need to know, but to which it has limited access.
- be timely, ongoing, and have implications for a significant number of residents of the United States of America.
- have clearly defined concepts and be backed with solid verifiable documentation.
- have been published electronically or in print, in a circulated newspaper, journal, magazine, newsletter, or similar publication by a foreign or domestic source.
- have direct connections and implications for people within the United States of America, possibly including activities US citizens are engaged in abroad.
Project Censored was founded in 1976 by Carl Jenson. Its present director is Peter Phillips.
See also: Christian Science Monitor
External links
- Project Censored (http://www.projectcensored.org)
- A Project Censored archive (http://thirdworldtraveler.com/Project%20Censored/Project_Censored.html) - Censored US Foreign Policy News Stories 1976-2005
- The Memory Hole (http://www.thememoryhole.com)