Conflicting journalistic voices that were raised in the past have become such a jumble that merely identifying them is difficult. Dennis and Rivers define, categorize, present, and examine the voices that contributed to what became known as "the new media" environment in the 1970s. This new journalism came about as a result of dissatisfaction with existing values and standards of the early 1960s style of journalism.The authors are comprehensive in their concerns, as reflected in the national scope presented. They cover developments in the major cities, on both coasts, in the Middle West and South?in every major region of the United States. Most of the research required travel and interviews; all of it required reading almost endlessly and watching the video productions of journalists who built the structure of alternative television. Dennis and Rivers offer a representative view of forms and media, as well as the people who fashioned the new orientation.The authors claim that the wrangling over objective and interpretative reporting misses the main point, which is that neither is in close touch with reality. The best objective report may cover all surfaces of an event, the best interpretative report may explain all its meanings, but both are bloodless, a world away from the experience. Color, flavor, atmosphere, the ultimate human meaning?all these, the new journalists contend, are far beyond the reach of traditional models of journalism. This is one of the central reasons for the emergence of different forms and practices in our time. This volume will help younger scholars understand the sources of quasi-journalistic practices extant today, including blogging and electronic-only publications.
The media's treatment of and interaction with race, like race itself, is one of the most sensitive areas hi American society. Whether hi its coverage and treatment of racial matters or racial connections inside media organizations themselves, mass communication is deeply involved with race. The Media in Black and White brings together twenty journalists and scholars, of various racial backgrounds, to grapple with a controversial issue: the role that media industries, from advertising to newspapers to the information superhighway, play in helping Americans understand race. Contributors include Ellis Cose, a contributing editor for Newsweek; Manning Marable, chairman of Columbia University's African-American Research Center; William Wong, a columnist for the Oakland Tribune; Lisa Penaloza, a University of Illinois professor; and Melita Marie Garza, a Chicago Tribune reporter. Among the topics discussed are: the quality of reporting on immigrant issues; how sensationalism may be deepening the chasm of misunderstanding between the races; how the coverage of America's drug wars has been marked by racism; and whether politically correct language is interfering with coverage of vital issues and problems. The contributors of The Media in Black and White hope to broaden the narrow vision of the United States and the world beyond with their contributions to the debate over race and the media. The commentary found hi this important work will be of interest to sociologists, communication specialists, and black studies scholars.
Current information in the constantly changing field of mass communication has been incorporated into this text. Tables, figures and photographs show what's currently happening in mass media and it updates the fifth edition.
Throughout history the media has primarily been produced by adults, for adults, about adults. Increasingly, children have become a matter of high priority in the modern media society, and as they have, they have also become the subject of much concern. From debates in Congress about the detrimental effects of movies, comic books, and video games over the last century to efforts to court children as media consumers, there is a clear recognition that the media are not now and probably never were purely adult fare. Their impact on children is at issue.
Observers of media-government relations most often think first of conflicts with the executive branch, yet interactions between Congress and the media have been extensive and varied since the first Washington "correspondents" began sending dispatches from the sessions of Congress. In recent years the relationship between Congress and the news media has grown more complex. Coverage of Congress by the print and electronic media is extensive. At the same tune, Congress has increasing power to make communications policy that will have an important impact on the ability of the media to conduct their affairs, both economically and politically. "Covering Congress "explores those aspects of the relationship between the media and Congress that shape the news that reaches an information-seeking public. The contributors consider Congress as the source of much news as well as a great deal of self-promotion. They note there is neither a broad nor deep understanding of our national legislature in the United States. Contributors try to remedy this shortcoming by looking at the overall picture, the media scene on Capitol Hill, the messages that reach beyond Washington, and the history of relations between the Congress and the press. They discuss such issues as: the relationship Newt Gingrich has forged between his office and the media, perhaps at his own peril; the importance of speed over substance when reporting from Capitol Hill; the unflattering image of Congress as depicted in political cartoons; and the unparalleled power wielded by Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn when he dealt with the national media. Congress depends on the media to reach the public but also has considerable muscle to shape its media relations when it has strong leadership and a coherent plan. It usually lacks these, but Congress does much to try to project a friendly face to the public through the media, facilitating interviews hi Capitol Hill radio and television studios. Regardless of what happens in any particular election, it is clear that Congress is fully alert to the modern communications age and that the consequences of this encounter are likely to be accentuated in the years ahead. "Covering Congress "is a necessary addition to the libraries of communications scholars, media specialists, political scientists, historians, and sociologists.
College and university education has long been a material and intellectual luxury in American life. Fewer than 38 percent of Americans have ever attended college, and only about half that number hold bachelor's degrees. While post-World War Two legislation greatly democratized higher education, the editors of this volume contend that the system has never been a public stewardship. Many universities are devoted to private sector research rather than public learning, to productivity rather than democratic discourse, and because of diminished financial opportunities, increasingly exclude poor, working and lower middle class students, many of them people of color. The contributors to this volume recognize that the American system of higher education is the most open and egalitarian in the world. Largely for this reason, it is the only American institution which today enjoys a positive balance of trade. Many more foreign students come to study at American universities than do Americans go to study abroad. The study of higher education in an information age means examining higher education. The place of economics in decision-making is as a vehicle for social mobility. The volume covers a myriad of themes: the role of media ranking universities, and their contribution to low expectations of universities; the disjunction between massive support for college and university sports events and the intellectual and presumed academic missions of these institutions of higher learning; and boosterism as a general phenomenon in funding. Yet, editors and contributors alike emphasize new currents in the educational agenda. The essays cover efforts to close the gap between the mutual recriminations of universities and media leaders. The theme of this volume is that there is a crisis in higher education and a crisis hi knowledge--who produces it, controls it, uses it, and benefits by it. Properly understood, the issues common to both higher education and the media have profound implications for public life. This volume is critical of current practices, but also mindful that the university remains a place in which civil forms of discourse are central, and hence of great potential benefit to the dissemination of information and ideas as such. It will be of interest to professional interested hi communication and education.
Any quotation dictionary that includes an entry for "education" provides ample testimony that education is more than schools. From Aristotle to Oscar Wilde come warnings that education is no substitute for experience. Indeed, for some critics of schooling, we learn that formal education is antithetical to learning. "America's Schools and the Mass Media "collectively explore the contents of mass media and how it shapes educational programming and policy-making. The editors claim that American schooling for the past forty years has less to do with a learning agenda and pedagogy than with economic competition and national security. The editors and contributors to this important volume contend that American public schooling has historical roots as a crucible for democratic government. This ideal has not only grown increasingly suspect in recent years, but is now commonly assailed as a brake on both economic growth and intellectual excellence. The editors ask what minimum skills and knowledge one must possess in order to participate in the life of the nation, if not in the life of the mind. The essays by Gerald Grant, Bella Rosenberg, Charles T. Salmon, Joan Richardson, and Susan Tifft take direct aim at this issue, with surprising, but stimulating results. The volume begins with Myron Lieberman's "law" to wit, the "more important an educational question, the less people know about it." The remainder of the contributions aim Jo begin removing this law with a more salutary understanding. The twelve essays that constitute the work deal with the interplay of educational and media institutions; what students learn and how they learn it--with a special emphasis on the long and questionable history of corporate, special interest and government attempts to shape the beliefs of future citizens and present consumers. The volume closes with a full scale effort to review the nation's educational priorities, and how questions of school choice are entwined with those of media choice.
There is no journalistic work more deserving of the designation âstoryâ than news of crime. From antiquity, the culture of crime has been about the human condition, and whether information comes from Homer, Hollywood, or the city desk, it is a bottom about the human capacity for cruelty and suffering, about desperation and fear, about sex, race, and public morals. Facts are important to the telling of a crime story, but ultimately less so than the often apocryphal narratives we derive from them. The Culture of Crime is hence about the most common and least studies staple of news. Its prominence dates at least to the 1830s, when the urban penny press employed violence, sex, and scandal to build dizzying high levels of circulation and begin the modern age of mass media. In its coverage of crime, in particular, the popular press represented a new kind of journalism, if not a new definition of news, that made available for public consumption whole areas of social and private life that the mercantile, elite, and political press earlier ignored. This legacy has continued unabated for 150 years. The book explores new wrinkles in the study of crime and as a mass cultural activityâfrom exploring the private lives of public officials to dangers posed by constraints to a free press. The volume is prepared with the rigor of a scholarly brief but also the excitement of actual crime stories as such. Throughout, the reader is reminded that crime stories are both news and drama, and to ignore either is to diminish the other. The work delves deeply into current problems without either sentimental or trivial pursuits. It will be a volume of great interest to people in communications research, the social sciences, criminologists, and not least, the broad public which must endure the punishment of crime and the thrill of the crime story alike.
For over a decade the "Media Studies Journal "has joined in the debate about the media and proposed solutions to problems that divide the media and the public. Its contributions by leading figures in print and other media have helped better professional, scholarly, and public understanding of the media's role in society. During this time, the world has experienced vast changes, with the end of the cold war and the rise of democracies and market economies almost every where--conditions that have generally benefited freedom of expression. "Media and Public Life "is a retrospective of ten years of some of the most arresting published work derived from the "Media Studies Journal." Some of the journal's most enduring essays appear in this volume. Among them are: "How Vast the Wasteland Now?" by Newton N. Minow; "In the South--When It Mattered to Be an Editor" by Dudley Clendinen; "Seething in Silence--News in Black and White" by Ellis Cose; "Requiem for the Boys on the Bus" by Maureen Dowd; "The Flickering Images That May Drive Presidents" by Robert MacNeil; and "The Inevitable Global Conversation" by Walter B. Wriston. "Media and Public Life "reflects the diversity of issues and perspectives that has been a trademark of the "Media Studies Journal. "The chapters aptly depict the growing field of communication and media studies. Many ideas are taken into consideration, including the great functions of communication (like information, opinion, entertainment, and publicity), trends (such as news in the post-cold war period), and specific industries (such as radio and book publishing). Throughout the book the consequences and impact of media institutions on society and public life are maintained. "Media and Public Life "will be of value to communications specialists, media studies scholars, and sociologists.
While there is nearly universal agreement that the media play a vital and defining role in democracy everywhere it exists, ironically they are often unpopular. However, the media in a democratic system must be credible and reliable lest they lose their influence and authority. It is usually acknowledged that democracy almost never flourishes without an effective, independent media. The contributors to "Media and Democracy "discuss these issues with the clear recognition that generalizing about the media is often perilous. In the opening section of this volume, "Definitive Questions," chapters by Leo Bogart and Denis McQuail explore the contemporary relationship between media and democracy and its implications for the future. The next section, "Media and the Dynamics of Democracy Around the World," opens with contributions from Vaclav Havel and Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former secretary-general of the United Nations. They are joined by authors who examine the relationship between media and democracy in specific locations around the world. The third part, "Journalism as a Democratic Discipline," explores the demands that democracy makes on journalists in chapters by Robert MacNeil, Brian Mulroney, and Margaret T. Gordon. In the final"section, "Democracy and New Media," Lawrence K. Grossman, Sara B. Ivry, and Andrew C. Gordon consider the implications for democracy of new media technologies. Christopher Dornan concludes the book with a review essay examining recent books on media and democracy. Ideally, democracy and media coexist and support each other through a process of negotiation hopefully aimed at developing a consensus about the public interest. "Media and Democracy "is an intriguing examination of these two important ingredients to American society. It will be of value to political scientists, communications scholars, media specialists, and sociologists.
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