Transaction Media Studies Series – serie

Covering the Courts shows how writers and journalists deal with present-day major trials, such as those involving Timothy McVeigh and O.J. Simpson. The volume features such outstanding contributors as Linda Deutsch and Fred Graham, and provides an in-depth look at the performance of the court in an age of heightened participation by reporters, camera operators, social scientists, major moguls of network radio and television, and advocates of special causes.The volume does far more than discuss specific cases. Indeed, it is a major tool in the study of the new relationships between a free press and a fair trial. Interestingly, a consensus is described in which the parties involved in efforts to balance freedom of the press and the right to a fair trial are moving in tandem. In this regard, sensitive issues ranging from the universality of law to the particularity of racial, religious, and gender claims, are explored with great candor.The volume also turns the intellectual discourse to its major players: the members of the press, the lawyers, and the judiciary. Has there been a shift from reporting functions to entertainment values? Does television and live presentation shift the burden from the contents of a case to the photogenic and star quality of players? What excites and intrigues the public: serious disturbances to the peace and mass mayhem, such as the Oklahoma bombings or sexual adventures of entertainment and sports figures? The findings are sometimes disturbing, but the reading is never dull. This book will be of interest to journalists, lawyers, and the interested general public.This volume is the latest in the Transaction Media Studies Series edited by Everette E. Dennis, dean of the school of communication at Fordham University. The volume itself is edited by Robert Giles, the editor, and Robert W. Snyder, the managing editor, of Media Studies Journal. The original contributions were initially presented at The Freedom Forum and its Media Studies Center.

The relationship between China and the United States has been marked by a lack of mutual comprehension that stretches from America's missionary paternalism in the early twentieth century to the fears and fascinations of the present. Throughout the twentieth century China has attracted the attention of American journalists, from the first China hands who covered an ancient country lurching into the modern world, to the chroniclers of World War II and the Chinese civil war, to the reporters who today explore the contradictions of China's economy. Covering China looks at the questions, concerns, and conceptions of all the generations of American reporters against the backdrop of Chinese history and China's own media.Covering China is divided into three sections. "Histories" takes up the events, anniversaries, and processes that have shaped Chinese and American media coverage over the century. Included here are chapters focusing on the civil war and analyzing American reporting in the 1930s and 1940s in their many viewpoints, as well as in the decades when China was closed to American journalists. Other chapters consider the influence on journalism of various political movements from the anti-Western May 4th movement of 1918 to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. "Communicating" explores the challenges of explaining China to Americans and America to the Chinese. Among the topics covered here are the Chinese media reaction to the Clinton scandal, the status of Hong Kong as a window between China and the West, Communist efforts to control public opinion in the media, and the pioneering role of Pearl S. Buck in interpreting China for American readers. The concluding section, "Issues," examines important stories now emerging in China that will matter to both journalists and China watchers, including the changing roles of Chinese women, little-covered instances of ethnic unrest, and the complexities of economic and environmental stories.The variety of points of view expressed in Covering China is a testament to the vigor of contemporary writing on China. As one contributor notes, American media coverage of China needs to challenge existing assumptions and be ready for the unexpected. By doing so, journalists can minimize the sense of shock that erupts in America at each swing of Chinese history. Covering China will be of interest to China area specialists, journalists, and cultural historians.Robert W. Snyder is managing editor of the Media Studies Journal, a historian, and author of Transit Talk: New York's Bus and Subway Workers Tell Their Stories. He has taught at Princeton University and New York University.

The relationship between China and the United States has been marked by a lack of mutual comprehension that stretches from America's missionary paternalism in the early twentieth century to the fears and fascinations of the present. Throughout the twentieth century China has attracted the attention of American journalists, from the first China hands who covered an ancient country lurching into the modern world, to the chroniclers of World War II and the Chinese civil war, to the reporters who today explore the contradictions of China's economy. Covering China looks at the questions, concerns, and conceptions of all the generations of American reporters against the backdrop of Chinese history and China's own media.Covering China is divided into three sections. "Histories" takes up the events, anniversaries, and processes that have shaped Chinese and American media coverage over the century. Included here are chapters focusing on the civil war and analyzing American reporting in the 1930s and 1940s in their many viewpoints, as well as in the decades when China was closed to American journalists. Other chapters consider the influence on journalism of various political movements from the anti-Western May 4th movement of 1918 to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. "Communicating" explores the challenges of explaining China to Americans and America to the Chinese. Among the topics covered here are the Chinese media reaction to the Clinton scandal, the status of Hong Kong as a window between China and the West, Communist efforts to control public opinion in the media, and the pioneering role of Pearl S. Buck in interpreting China for American readers. The concluding section, "Issues," examines important stories now emerging in China that will matter to both journalists and China watchers, including the changing roles of Chinese women, little-covered instances of ethnic unrest, and the complexities of economic and environmental stories.The variety of points of view expressed in Covering China is a testament to the vigor of contemporary writing on China. As one contributor notes, American media coverage of China needs to challenge existing assumptions and be ready for the unexpected. By doing so, journalists can minimize the sense of shock that erupts in America at each swing of Chinese history. Covering China will be of interest to China area specialists, journalists, and cultural historians.Robert W. Snyder is managing editor of the Media Studies Journal, a historian, and author of Transit Talk: New York's Bus and Subway Workers Tell Their Stories. He has taught at Princeton University and New York University.