David Edwards (born 1962) is a British media campaigner who is co-editor of the

Media Lens Media Lens is a British media analysis website established in 2001 by David Cromwell and David Edwards. Cromwell and Edwards are the site's editors and only regular contributors. Their aim is to scrutinise and question the mainstream media's ...

website with David Cromwell. Edwards specialises in the analysis of mainstream, or

corporate A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as "born out of s ...

mass media Mass media include the diverse arrays of media that reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit information electronically via media such as films, radio, recorded music, or television. Digital media comprises b ...

, which are normally considered impartial or liberal, an interpretation both men believe is disputable. Born in

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, Edwards was raised in the village of Bearsted, and spent summers in Sweden, his mother's country of origin. He sees this as influencing his attitudes to modern living.Derrick Jensen & David Edward
"Nothing To Lose But Our Illusions: an interview with David Edwards"
''The Sun'' magazine (United States), June 2000, as reprinted on the Media Lens website, 22 June 2000. Jensen reprinted this interview in the book
''How Shall I Live My Life?: On Liberating the Earth from Civilization''
Oakland: PM Press, 2008, p.11-36. Interview conducted by telephone, 11 January 2000 After graduating from

Leicester University The University of Leicester ( ) is a public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, University College, Leicester, gained university ...

with a Politics degree he worked in

sales Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. A period during which goods are sold for a reduced price may also be referred ...

and

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

for several large corporations, but became profoundly dissatisfied with the corporate working environment. According to Edwards, while working at

British Telecom BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

in the late 1980s, his employment there became untenable after he attempted to set up a "green initiatives" project. In 1991, feeling he was "not fully alive", he left the business world completely to begin his writing career, taking the advice of

Joseph Campbell Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer. He was a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of t ...

, the American

mythologist Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

, to "follow your bliss", Edwards earned most of his income at this time by

teaching English as a foreign language Teaching English as a second (TESL) or foreign language (TEFL) and teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) are terms that refer to teaching English language, English to students whose first language is not English. The terms TEF ...

. After his early articles were published on

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

and

environmental Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

issues by independent magazines and journals (such as ''

Z Magazine ZNetwork, formerly known as Z Communications, is a left-wing activist-oriented media group founded in 1986 by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent.Max Elbaum''Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che'' London, England, UK; ...

''), Edwards wrote his first book, ''Free to be Human'', (Green Books, 1995), which later appeared in the United States as ''Burning All Illusions: a Guide to Personal and Political Freedom'' (

South End Press South End Press was a non-profit book publisher run on a model of participatory economics. It was founded in 1977 in Boston's South End. It published books written by political activists, notably Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Win ...

, 1996). It relies on Edward S. Herman and

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

propaganda model The propaganda model is a conceptual model in political economy advanced by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky to explain how propaganda and systemic biases function in corporate mass media. The model seeks to explain how populations are manipu ...

, as well as on the writings of

Erich Fromm Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and set ...

. Edwards advanced the thesis that corporate structural factors conspire to make the mass media give a picture of the world that goes beyond the political indoctrination postulated by Herman and Chomsky, to encompass almost all aspects of personal life, by constantly promoting the values of blind

consumerism Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the ...

. Edwards has also drawn on his practice of

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

in his writings. Edwards, writing for the New York-based '' Tricycle: The Buddhist Review'' in 2005, commented: "The antidotes to systemic greed, I am convinced, are political movements motivated by unconditional compassion for suffering. This compassion needs to be rooted in genuinely profound and authentic sources—the kind provided today by the best Buddhist teachers and organisations." Edwards was

remote work Remote work (also called telecommuting, telework, work from or at home, WFH as an initialism, hybrid work, and other terms) is the practice of work (human activity), working at or from one's home or Third place, another space rather than from ...

ing in Bournemouth for the

International Society for Ecology and Culture Local Futures (formerly the International Society for Ecology and Culture) is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to raise awareness about what it identifies as the root causes of contemporary social, environmental, and economic crises. The ...

at the time he first met David Cromwell. Together with Cromwell, Edwards co-founded in 2001 (and remains a co-editor of)

, a

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

correcting what they perceive as bias in the British "corporate media". The Media Lens' editors have collaborated on two books, '' Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media'' (2006) and ''Newspeak in the 21st Century'' (2009).

Bibliography

* Edwards, David (1998) ''The Compassionate Revolution: Radical Politics and Buddhism'', Dartington: Green Books * Edwards, David (2000) ''Free to Be Human: Intellectual Self-defence in an Age of Illusions'', Dartington: Green Books (published in America as ''Burning all Illusions'') * Edwards, David (2005) ''Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media'', London: Pluto Press * Edwards, David (2009) ''Newspeak in the 21st Century'', London: Pluto Press * Edwards, David (2010) "Normalising the unthinkable: The media's role in mass killing", in ''Peace Journalism, War and Conflict Resolution'', ed. Richard Lance Keeble, John Tulloch, Florian Zollman, New York: Peter Lang

Notes

External links

David Edwards author page at Zcomm
An earlier version has more details
Author page from Z Space
(retrieved by the Internet Archive, Wayback Machine, 15 April 2013)
Weblog on Media Lens
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, David 1962 births Living people Alumni of the University of Leicester BT Group people British male journalists People from Maidstone Gandhi International Peace Award recipients