Are all victims white? Are all villains black? White Victims, Black Villains traces how race and gender have combined in news media narratives about crime and violence in US culture. The book argues that the criminalization of African Americans in US culture has been most consistently and effectively legitimized by news media deeply invested in protecting and maintaining white supremacy. An illuminating, and often shocking text, White Victims, Black Villains should be read by anyone interested in race and politics.

Race Riots and Resistance uncovers a long-hidden, tragic chapter of American history. Focusing on the «Red Summer» of 1919 in which black communities were targeted by white mobs, the book examines the contexts out of which white racial violence arose. It shows how the riots transcended any particularity of cause, and in doing so calls into question many longstanding beliefs about racial violence. The book goes on to portray the riots as a phenomenon, documenting the number of incidents, describing the events in detail, and analyzing the patterns that emerge from looking at the riots collectively. Finally and significantly, Race Riots and Resistance argues that the response to the riots marked an early stage of what came to be known as the Civil Rights Movement.

The uproar over "legitimate rape" during the 2012 U.S. elections confirms that rape remains a word in flux, subject to political power and social privilege. Redefining Rape describes the forces that have shaped the meaning of sexual violence in the U.S., through the experiences of accusers, assailants, and advocates for change.

This updated eighth edition provides a thorough and engaging history of communication and media through a collection of essential, field-defining essays. The collection reveals how media has been influential in both maintaining social order and enabling social change. Contributions from a wide range of voices offer instructors the opportunity to customize their courses while challenging students to build upon their own knowledge and skill sets. From stone age symbols and early writing to the internet and social media, readers are introduced to an expansive, intellectually enlivening study of the relationship between human history and communication media. New case studies explore the Black Press, the impact of photography on journalism, gender and civil rights discourses in the media, and the effects of algorithmic data on modern social media platforms. This book can be used as a core text or supplemental reader for courses in communication history, communication theory, and introductory courses in communication and media studies.

This book explores U.S. news media’s 21st century reckoning with race, from the election of President Barack Obama, through the birth and growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, to the tense weeks after a white police officer killed an unarmed African American teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. While legacy newsrooms struggled to interpret complex events, a diverse group of digital storytellers used emerging technologies. Veteran journalist and media scholar Carolyn Nielsen examines how the first two decades of this century produced new models for journalists to explore the complexity of racism, amplify the voices of lived experience, and understand their audiences. Using critical analysis of news coverage and interviews with reporters who cover racial issues, the book shows how new models of journalism break with legacy journalism’s conceptions of objectivity, expertise, and news judgment to provide deeper understanding of systems of power.

Illuminates the threats Black women face and the lack of substantive public policy towards gendered violence Black women in marginalized communities are uniquely at risk of battering, rape, sexual harassment, stalking and incest. Through the compelling stories of Black women who have been most affected by racism, persistent poverty, class inequality, limited access to support resources or institutions, Beth E. Richie shows that the threat of violence to Black women has never been more serious, demonstrating how conservative legal, social, political and economic policies have impacted activism in the U.S.-based movement to end violence against women. Richie argues that Black women face particular peril because of the ways that race and culture have not figured centrally enough in the analysis of the causes and consequences of gender violence. As a result, the extent of physical, sexual and other forms of violence in the lives of Black women, the various forms it takes, and the contexts within which it occurs are minimized—at best—and frequently ignored. Arrested Justice brings issues of sexuality, class, age, and criminalization into focus right alongside of questions of public policy and gender violence, resulting in a compelling critique, a passionate re-framing of stories, and a call to action for change.

In the second half of 2020 and continuing into 2021, protests against racial injustice spread across the United States after the death of George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis Police Department officers. Members of the press covered these demonstrations, documenting what transpired and conveying the important messages involved. In so doing, the news media held law enforcement accountable through critical reporting on the actions of the police, with police officers responding in part by intimidating journalists in the field using force and arrest—this in the name of keeping the peace and protecting the public from further harm. What transpired during this troubled time cast a bright light on the contemporary relationship between the press and police in the United States. The relationship between these two fundamental institutions is, however, a long and complicated one, dating back to colonial British North America. In the mid-19th century, (1830s–1850s) both the press and the police began to take their modern forms, and since then have continued to develop, routinely interacting with each other as journalists and police officers often found themselves responding to the same crimes and events. At times, members of both institutions managed to co-exist or even cooperate and made efforts to help one another, while at other times they butted heads to the point of conflict, the professional boundaries between journalists and police officers seemingly blurred. As both the press and the police have fallen under deep scrutiny in more modern times, the present moment marks what is, perhaps, an opportune time to focus on the political, economic, social, and technological problems they face. In “Pressing the Police and Policing the Press,” Scott Memmel offers the first book-length study of the history and legal landscape of the press-police relationship. Each chapter focuses on interactions between the press and the police during a particular era, introducing relevant societal context and how both institutions evolved and responded to that context. Memmel concludes his study with recommendations on how, going forward, the press and the police might work together to tackle some of the similar issues they face and better serve the public.