Few things go better with a leisurely winter Sunday brunch than eggs and NPR radio.
Early this afternoon there was an excellent interview with Gene Roberts, former national editor for The New York Times and co-author of The Race Beat: The Press, The Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of America.
In this 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning book (for history) he and co-author Hank Kilbanoff, a twenty-year veteran of The Philadelphia Inquirer, look back on their experiences as newspaper journalists at the forefront of the coverage of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950's and 1960's.
Jeanette McVicker wrote a really sharp review of the book on the H-Net Website. As she observes, this book is a timely release given the extent to which media is now so intertwined in the lives of so many people.
The media plays such a huge role in shaping the mass-perception of race and culture, our culturegiest, it is essential to examine how the media has and does cover events and stories that impact race and culture in today's world.
Books like this will help us in taking the next step in the journey towards an evolution of how we see ourselves in a world in which the mainstream still gives such tremendous importance to factors like skin color, religion, sex, economic status and country of origin.
Looking back on history and how we analyze our own coverage of the events that shape our lives is critical to our efforts to positively shape the future.
H-Net shows a list price of $30.00 but I just found a used copy of it on Amazon.com for $13.24 including shipping; once I get it and read it I'll check back in with my own review. To be sure I talk, but I also walk.
No comments:
Post a Comment