Prominent activist and media critic Robert McChesney made a notable speech at Pomona College last week in front of community members of the Claremont Colleges. McChesney, a professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, addressed the weakening of the journalism industry and the social implications of its current “state of crisis,” a notion that has become “conventional wisdom” among press scholars.

“Journalism is the heart of democracy,” said McChesney, who went on to declare that a well-informed public is imperative to the success of a free society.