The last (5th) season of HBO's 'The Wire'. Fantastic show in general, but the last season focused on the media. posted by elendil71 at 12:10 PM on June 12
Gawker as a whole delights in tweaking the media while Romenesko is a compendium of stories about the media, many of which are satirical. Caution: Navel gazing ahead. posted by haqspan at 12:20 PM on June 12
Seconding The Daily Show link from fontophilic. Simply brilliant. posted by HumuloneRanger at 12:22 PM on June 12
Rich Media, Poor Democracy by Robert McChesney is pretty informative, and discusses the compromising effect corporate ownership has on journalism in particular, and media in general. posted by reverend cuttle at 12:23 PM on June 12
On the lighter side, I'd recommend "The Truth" by Terry Pratchett. One might be inclined to dismiss any novel which includes vampires from the list of cunning and perceptive satires on what it's like to be a reporter, the true power of the press and the tabs, but in this case one should not.
On the current revolution, I'd recommend this essay by Clay Shirky, which neatly describes and explains the tectonic forces currently cracking up the media. He's a professor at NYU. I'd also look at this blog by Harvard's Nieman Journalism lab, which links to any interesting articles about new efforts to cope with the internet and critiques of the current state of play by insiders and outsiders, along with info on the state of the ad game, etc. and occasionally provides original interviews and commentary. To switch metaphors, it's an excellent catalog of the dog-paddling efforts of current players in the industry as they wait for a rescue boat to appear. (For instance, they've devoted a lot of coverage to Steve Brill and his partners' new effort to get web customers to pay for news.) posted by Diablevert at 1:38 PM on June 12
The fifth season of The Wire is a vicious take-down of modern journalism (to a fault, IMO) posted by Bookhouse at 1:57 PM on June 12
The first chapter or two of Manufacturing Consent was written by Edward S. Herman, who is Professor Emeritus of Finance at UPenn. He laid out the idea of a successive stream of filters that affect what journalists eventually write and how the story gets distorted from each successive filter. Journalists have to be friendly to bureaucrats and politicians to get information, advertisers veto content, media companies have to not anger their parent companies, etc. Short, interesting read. posted by ayerarcturus at 1:58 PM on June 12
The movie The Paper is not exactly contemporary (I think it came out in the mid-90s, pre-internet explosion) but it's a great look at a day in the life of a tabloid newspaper in NYC. A family friend who worked at a similar paper said that it was pretty spot-on. posted by lunasol at 4:40 PM on June 12
I would try the early novels of (former Baltimore Sun reporter and wife of The Wire creator) Laura Lippman. As a former reporter myself, Lippman's insights about newspapering had me nodding my head in agreement. posted by princesspathos at 7:38 PM on June 12
Brass Eye is a satire on TV's magazine journalism, rather than individual outfits/stories. It's awesome. The Paedophilia special is unmatched in lampooning screaming panic-news.
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posted by fontophilic at 12:09 PM on June 12