Performing the News: Identity, Authority, and the Myth of Neutrality explores how journalists from historically marginalized groups have long felt pressure to conform when performing for audiences. Many speak with a flat, “neutral” accent, modify their delivery to hide distinctive vocal attributes, dress conventionally to appeal to the “average” viewer, and maintain a consistent appearance to avoid unwanted attention. Their aim is what author Elia Powers refers to as performance neutrality—presentation that is deemed unobjectionable, reveals little about journalists’ social identity, and supposedly does not detract from their message. Increasingly, journalists are challenging restrictive, purportedly neutral forms of self-presentation. This book argues that performance neutrality is a myth that reinforces the status quo, limits on-air diversity, and hinders efforts to make newsrooms more inclusive. Through in-depth interviews with journalists in broadcasting and podcasting, and those who shape their performance, the author suggests ways to make journalism more inclusive and representative of diverse audiences.

The BBC's Advisory Committee on Spoken English was set up to provide an authoritative guide to pronunciation and the use of language for BBC announcers. The results of its deliberations were published for general consumption in a series of pamphlets called Broadcast English. Based on primary sources, the compelling story of the Advisory Board during its crucial first 13 years is told here for the first time. It reveals how board members, including George Bernard Shaw and A. Lloyd James, soon discovered that standardization and regulation of spoken language is extremely challenging and highly controversial. The first two chapters describe the linguistic aspects of its work, particularly after it had taken on the role of standardizing spoken English, a task well beyond its mandate and the BBC Charter. The third and fourth chapters look at the challenges the Committee encountered in assuming their prescriptive role, the structural crisis which ensued, and the changes to linguistic policies which then followed. Chapter 5 and 6 document the final years of the Committee, explore the reasons for its failure in its role as guardian of 'properly' spoken English, and consider the legacy of the Committee in today's broadcasting. The book will appeal to linguists and historians generally, especially those interested in the English language and language policy.

The basic quality of life consists of numerous miscellaneous challenges, which create (individual) challenge based on reason. Webster dictionary, definitive definition of (reason)an explanation or justification of an act, idea, etc, a cause or motive; the ability to think, from judgment, draw conclusion, etc. sound thought or judgement; good sense; normal mental powers; a sound mind; sanity; vi., to think coherently and logically; draw inferences or conclusions from facts known or assumed; to argue or talk in a logical way; vt., to think logically about; think out systematically; analyze, to argue, conclude, or infer; now usually with a clause introduced by that as the object; to support, justify, etc. with reason; to persuade or bring by reasoning (into or out of); syn., cause, thinkby reason of, because ofin (or within) reason; in accord with what is reasonableout of all reason unreasonable; stand to reason to be logical or reasonable, with reason justifiably; rightly. In essence, never postulate a challenge, demand, and accept accountability with intellectual moral value, in accordance with sensitivity of your God-created brain, which controls your entire philosophical trait, and if appropriately manifestwith the utilization of embedded genetic heritage artistic ability, combined with superior institution learningis the distinguished quality that God created within the human brain that determines (all) mankinds capabilities eternally. Learning is an effort to facilitate (challenge), which is a distinctive manner of production to attain satisfactory completion of an ambition agenda. And collectively, one can become a distinctive individual that can accomplish (any) strong conscious impulse desire with enthusiasm, which is the moral principle practice that America was established on.

Between 1880 and 1930, close to 200 women were murdered by lynch mobs in the American South. Many more were tarred and feathered, burned, whipped, or raped. In this brutal world of white supremacist politics and patriarchy, a world violently divided by race, gender, and class, black and white women defended themselves and challenged the male power brokers. Crystal Feimster breaks new ground in her story of the racial politics of the postbellum South by focusing on the volatile issue of sexual violence. Pairing the lives of two Southern women—Ida B. Wells, who fearlessly branded lynching a white tool of political terror against southern blacks, and Rebecca Latimer Felton, who urged white men to prove their manhood by lynching black men accused of raping white women—Feimster makes visible the ways in which black and white women sought protection and political power in the New South. While Wells was black and Felton was white, both were journalists, temperance women, suffragists, and anti-rape activists. By placing their concerns at the center of southern politics, Feimster illuminates a critical and novel aspect of southern racial and sexual dynamics. Despite being on opposite sides of the lynching question, both Wells and Felton sought protection from sexual violence and political empowerment for women. Southern Horrors provides a startling view into the Jim Crow South where the precarious and subordinate position of women linked black and white anti-rape activists together in fragile political alliances. It is a story that reveals how the complex drama of political power, race, and sex played out in the lives of Southern women.

The Mafia is the most powerful criminal organisation the world has ever known. This book tells the epic story of how the Mafia was nearly destroyed by Mussolini, prospered in the US, struck a secret wartime deal with the US government, and then backed a bloody rebellion that nearly turned Sicily into an independent Mafia realm. It shows how Lucky Luciano won his freedom thanks to mobster help in WWII; how Jewish gangsters clashed with Nazis on the streets of New York; how Mafiosi nearly issued contracts to kill top Nazis including Hitler; how British bobbies patrolled the deadly streets of Palermo; and how Mafia-backed bandits conducted a guerrilla war for Sicilian independence. The Mafia at War is a provocative account of how a criminal organisation exploited the grim realities of World War II to revive its fortunes and dominate global crime. 'A fascinating and compelling work on three of the most evil movements of the 20th century. It ought to be required reading for anyone looking for insights into the period.' Richard Hammer

Morris "Moe" Dalitz was America's most secretive and most successful mobster. As a major architect of the United States' national crime syndicate, Dalitz was active in various fields of organized crime from 1918 until his death, all while spinning a web of myth and mock-respectability around himself so dense that decades after his demise, most mistake the legend for reality. From Prohibition-era bootlegging to the Reagan years, no other individual was present at so many pivotal events in gangland history. It's impossible to fully understand the modern Mob without knowing about Dalitz, his career, and the cunning publicity campaign that transformed his image from thug to that of a revered philanthropist. This exhaustive biography tells the story of Dalitz's life and the syndicate that he and like-minded individuals built from scratch.