African Americans and the Media

by Squires, Catherine

• ISBN13: 9780745640365
• ISBN10: 0745640362
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-12
• Publisher: Polity
• More Book Details

Summary

From pamphlets denouncing slavery to boycotts of Hollywood, African Americans have fought for adequate representations of themselves in the mass media industries of the United States. This book provides readers with an interdisciplinary overview of the past, present, and future of African Americans in U.S. media and the ongoing project of gaining racial equality in media: a process which spans generations. Catherine Squires introduces the reader to the varied ways in which Black Americans have navigated cultural, political, and economic obstacles both to make their own media and to critique mainstream media.

Synthesizing the work of social scientists, historians, cultural critics, as well as comments from audience members and media producers, African Americans and the Media gives readers a lively entry point to classic and contemporary studies of Black Americans and mass media. Across the chapters, readers follow African Americans’ struggles to harness the power of print, broadcasting, film, and digital media, through five main themes which are woven through the book: representation, circulation, innovation, audience and responsibility. Taking in examples as diverse as Blaxploitation films, the work of 20th Century black activist journalists such as Ida B. Wells and A. Philip Randolph, and popular television such as The Cosby Show, this book will be essential reading for all students and scholars of media and communications and African American studies.

Author Biography

Catherine Squires, Cowles Professor of Journalism, Diversity & Equality, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chronology of Events

Introduction - African Americans and the Mass Media

The Black Press

The Black Press in the 19th Century: From Slavery to Reconstruction

The Great Black Migration and the Growth of the Urban Black Press, 1910-1945

The Black Press, the Civil Rights Movement, and Beyond

Black Magazines in the 20th Century

Film

Mainstream Cinema and African Americans, 1900-1940s

From Servile to "Upstanding": Message films, Sidney Poitier, and Hollywood after WWII

Approaching a New Century: From Spike Lee to Direct-to-DVD

Radio and Recorded Music

Records and Race in the Early Years of Radio

Radio and Race: From World War II to Rock ‘n' Roll

Integrating Entertainment and Ownership in Music & Radio

Television and New Media

Black Faces in Small Places: Early television and Black Americans

Enter Cosby: A New Era of Black Presence on Television, 1984-1992

Black Entertainment Television and the Promise of Cable Diversity

African Americans and the New Media Environment: From Mass to Niche Media

Endnotes

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.