Class and News

by Heider, Don; Blank-Libra, Janet; Brennen, Bonnie; Dunleavy, Dennis J.; Ettema, James S.; Fuse, Koji; Gilens, Martin; Grabe, Maria Elizabeth; Hapke, Laura; Harry, Joseph C.; Jones, Paul; Kumar, Deepa; Kurpius, David; Liebler, Carol; Martin, Christopher R.;

• ISBN13: 9780742527133
• ISBN10: 0742527131
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-05-17
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

Class and News is a multidisciplinary collection of essays examining how the news media treats or neglects social structure in everyday reporting. Are certain stories chosen for their appeal to the upper or middle classes? Are stories of interest to lower class readers/viewers avoided? How are issues of social order reported or reflected in stories that aren't about class? This in-depth work will be a valuable resource for students, scholars, and general readers interested in the dynamics of class and news in the United States.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(5)
Don Heider
1 Media, Class, and Power: Debunking the Myth of a Classless Society	6	(17)
Deepa Kumar
Part I: Class in Print	23	(62)
2 Choosing Sources: How the Press Perpetuated the Myth of the Single Mother on Welfare	25	(19)
Janet Blank-Libra
3 Poor People in the News: Images from the Journalistic Subconscious	44	(17)
Martin Gilens
4 Picturing Class: Mining the Field of Front-Page Photographs for Keys to Accidental Communities of Memory	61	(26)
Julianne H. Newton, Dennis' Dunleavy, Chad Okrusch, and Gabriela Martinez
Part II: Class on Television	85	(80)
5 Class and Local TV News	87	(21)
Don Heider and Koji Fuse
6 The Social Stratification Potential of Tabloid and Highbrow Newsmagazine Programs	108	(21)
Maria Elizabeth Grabe
7 Constructing a Televisual Class: Newsmagazines and Social Class	129	(21)
Jennie Phillips
8 Calling Class: Sports Announcers and the Culture of Poverty	150	(17)
James A. Rada and K. Tim Wulfemeyer
Part III: Constructing Class Groups	165	(66)
9 "America Is a Middle-Class Nation": The Presentation of Class in the Pages of Life	167	(32)
Sheila M. Webb
10 Tales Told in Two Cities: When Missing Girls Are(n't) News	199	(14)
Carol M. Liebler
11 "Trailer Park Trash": News, Ideology, and Depictions of the American Underclass	213	(18)
Joseph C. Harry
Part IV: Labor, Workers, and News	231	(50)
12 The Emergence of Class Consciousness in the American Newspaper Guild	233	(15)
Bonnie Brennen
13 Writing the Workers' World Trade Center: An Analysis of Reportage on Ground Zero in the Aftermath of September 11, 2001	248	(14)
Laura Hapke
14 UPS Strike Coverage and the Future of Labor in Corporate News	262	(19)
Christopher R. Martin
Part V: Prospects for Change	281	(57)
15 Good News from a Bad Neighborhood: Urban Journalism and Community Assets	283	(22)
James S. Ettema and Limor Peer
16 Class and Media Influence in Australia	305	(20)
Paul Jones and Michael Pusey
17 Television Civic Journalism and the Portrayal of Class	325	(13)
David D. Kurpius
Epilogue	338	(6)
Don Heider
Index	344	(11)
About the Contributors	355