Ronald Bishop – författare

Even as kindness toward individuals with intellectual disabilities has increased, encountering an individual and his or her family whose lives revolve around the daily challenges that come with them is atypical, or is experienced and narrated as such, particularly by the media. Even when there is progress, making such a leap provides rhetorical cover, or at least a distraction, while intolerance regroups. And for some, it becomes less about showing love and compassion than about being able to pat oneself on the back when an interaction with a person like our son Neil is over.But it’s why they don’t know, or are curious but reluctant to engage, or just flat out lack empathy, that compelled us to write this book. Contributing to their misimpressions and misanthropy are portrayals of individuals with intellectual disabilities in the mass media, scant though they are. We should always be skeptical of those in my line of work who argue that the onslaught of information we take in from a widened array of sources can magically change our behavior – the so-called “hypodermic needle” theory of media effects. But these messages do help us craft our realities and develop and share our own narratives about folks with intellectual disabilities. Holding Up the Sky Together is admittedly a hybrid: part memoir, part academic analysis—a professor with more than 30 published articles and four books, all of which revolve around media analysis, looks inward. But our fervent hope is to inject a bit more realism into the national dialogue about intellectual disabilities. We are grateful for increased awareness and tolerance, for Special Olympics, and for shows like Born This Way. But there is so much more to be done.

Explores atheist Michael Newdow's constitutional challenge and how the news media marginalized him from the moment the Ninth Circuit handed down its controversial ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional.Taking on the Pledge of Allegiance explores the landmark lawsuit filed by avowed atheist Michael Newdow against the Elk Grove Unified School District in California, in which he claimed the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance amounted to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. Newdow's original suit was ignored by the public and the news media until June 26, 2002, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional. This decision touched off a firestorm of negative reaction, both from politicians and from the public. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually overturned the ruling on Flag Day 2004.This book contains interviews with many of the parties involved, including Newdow and journalists who covered the case. Ronald Bishop examines how the news media marginalized Newdow after the Ninth Circuit's ruling-acting as a "guard dog" for the government and for the ideas supposedly at the ideological heart of America-by framing the decision as an aberration, a radical act by a hopelessly liberal federal circuit court. Bishop concludes that journalists relegated Newdow to a rhetorical "protest zone"-he was heard, but from a safe distance.

Explores atheist Michael Newdow's constitutional challenge and how the news media marginalized him from the moment the Ninth Circuit handed down its controversial ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional.Taking on the Pledge of Allegiance explores the landmark lawsuit filed by avowed atheist Michael Newdow against the Elk Grove Unified School District in California, in which he claimed the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance amounted to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. Newdow's original suit was ignored by the public and the news media until June 26, 2002, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional. This decision touched off a firestorm of negative reaction, both from politicians and from the public. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually overturned the ruling on Flag Day 2004.This book contains interviews with many of the parties involved, including Newdow and journalists who covered the case. Ronald Bishop examines how the news media marginalized Newdow after the Ninth Circuit's ruling-acting as a "guard dog" for the government and for the ideas supposedly at the ideological heart of America-by framing the decision as an aberration, a radical act by a hopelessly liberal federal circuit court. Bishop concludes that journalists relegated Newdow to a rhetorical "protest zone"-he was heard, but from a safe distance.

A celebration of childhood pick-up games.When Play Was Play offers a fascinating look at the disappearing world of childhood pick-up games. Drawing on his own experiences as well as a wealth of interviews and surveys, Ronald Bishop tells why these loosely structured games mattered-camaraderie, opportunities to develop social skills, and independence from the world of adults. Bishop contrasts his and others' childhoods with the experiences of today's overscheduled and overcommitted youth who find much of their time taken up by organized sports and other highly supervised activities. When Play Was Play celebrates memories of a past era, when kids were free to explore their neighborhoods, had time to throw together an afternoon game of stickball, and spent much of their lives playing outside just for the sake of playing.

A celebration of childhood pick-up games.When Play Was Play offers a fascinating look at the disappearing world of childhood pick-up games. Drawing on his own experiences as well as a wealth of interviews and surveys, Ronald Bishop tells why these loosely structured games mattered-camaraderie, opportunities to develop social skills, and independence from the world of adults. Bishop contrasts his and others' childhoods with the experiences of today's overscheduled and overcommitted youth who find much of their time taken up by organized sports and other highly supervised activities. When Play Was Play celebrates memories of a past era, when kids were free to explore their neighborhoods, had time to throw together an afternoon game of stickball, and spent much of their lives playing outside just for the sake of playing.

Though much has been said about Japanese-American incarceration camps, little attention is paid to the community newspapers closest to the camps and how they constructed the identities and lives of the occupants inside. Dependent on government and military officials for information, these journalists rarely wrote about the violation of the evacuees’ civil rights. Instead, they concentrated on the economic impact the camps—and the evacuees, who would replace workers off to enlist in the military and work for defense contractors—would have on the areas they covered. Newspapers like the Cody Enterprise and Powell Tribune in Wyoming, the Lamar Daily News, and the Casa Grande Dispatch regularly published overly optimistic updates on the progress of construction, the size of the contractor payrolls, and the amount of materials used to build the camps. Ronald Bishop and his coauthors reveal how journalists positioned the incarceration camps as a potential economic boon and how evacuees were framed as another community group, there to contribute to the region’s economic well-being. Community Newspapers and the Japanese-American Incarceration Camps examines the rhetoric and journalistic approach of the local papers and how they informed the communities just outside their walls. This book will appeal to scholars of history and journalism.

Gone are the days of enjoying life's simple pleasures for pleasure's sake. Twenty-first-century Americans are on a mission to cram every second of their earthly existence with significant accomplishments and momentous events. Even the most mundane undertaking must be approached with zeal, gusto, and expertise, or so the media persuade us to believe.Are we capable of doing anything casually anymore?In this first book-length treatment of media's obsession with triviality, cultural critic Ronald Bishop calls into focus the role of media in the demise of scale - the amount of effort, intensity, and significance with which we live - in contemporary culture. Bishop argues that American audiences are assaulted with messages that the ordinary, and often private, aspects of our lives - family, childhood, parenting, education, food, sports, home improvement - must be showcased publicly and with extreme passion.Playfully mixing personal narratives with an abundance of examples from television shows, news stories, editorials, advertisements, books, and movies, Bishop demonstrates how media promote the idea that the notion of scale must be abandoned to achieve success and happiness in modern society.Written with originality, intellectual acumen, and wit, More is a must-read for anyone obsessed with being obsessed and for others interested in media's contribution to society's out-of-scale behavior.

In The Thematic Evolution of Sports Journalism’s Narrative of Mental Illness: A Little Less Conversation, Ronald Bishop contends that the conversation developed and sustained by sports journalists about professional athletes’ experience with mental illness has evolved through three slightly overlapping stages, each marked by a primary theme. During the first stage, from the end of the 19th Century to the middle of the 20th century, sports journalists sensationalized the experience and portrayed the athletes—breathlessly labeled insane—as tragic figures. During the roughly two-decade second stage, an athlete’s experience with mental illness was portrayed as an inconvenience that flummoxed and infuriated team officials who had neither the ability nor the inclination to address the issue. The final stage, leading up to present day and beyond, is most notable for the development and widespread adoption of a coverage template that centers around an athlete’s brave decision to reveal and discuss their experiences. Combining historical research and narrative analysis, Bishop interrogates whether sports journalists have finally begun to cover the experience of mental illness with sufficient depth. Scholars of media studies, journalism, celebrity studies, and sports psychology will find this book of particular interest.

The Total Black Experience is the first book to chronicle the history and social significance of Positively Black, one of the longest-running public affairs shows in the history of television. Spurred on by the findings of the Kerner Commission, executives at WNBC-TV greenlit the show and turned production over to a small but dedicated team of storytellers who quickly made it their mission to carve out a space for serious and nuanced discussion of issues important to the Black community and to celebrate all aspects of Black culture. They believed that accurate representation of their experiences was a right, not a privilege. The show's first cohosts included the well-known Harlem-based activist Rev. Eugene Callender and Gus Heningburg, activist, successful consultant and mediator, and advocate for organized labor. Callender had founded Harlem Prep to equip young Black people for college, while Heningburg played a key role in stabilizing life in Newark following the rebellion there in the late 1960s. Both were adept at using the media to reach their constituencies. Combining in-depth interviews with painstaking archival research, The Total Black Experience introduces readers to key members of the Positively Black production team and analyzes thematic shifts in the show's content. The book celebrates Positively Black's longevity and challenges readers to explore the current state of Black representation on television.