Abstract
Jane Hall’s eight chapters focus on many of the contemporary issues at the intersection of politics and media. The book opens with the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the 2020 pandemic and presidential election. The media and politics “intersection” seeks to explore “impact” on candidates, issues, elections, policy, attitudes, and democracy (p. 32). A “research tool kit” classroom approach is designed to guide students and professors’ pedagogy: . . . reading, examining, and analyzing media coverage and political media in primary source form—that is, related articles in print or online, TV news transcripts, websites, social media, online videos, political ads, and other pieces of political communication as they appear, in primary source form, in the media. (p. 33)
The approach is interdisciplinary and quite broad, though it lacks some of the scholarly depth of Doris Graber’s previous books. It begins in Chapter 2 with media effects, agenda-setting, priming, framing, and symbolic theories. In Chapter 3, the book shifts to political advertising, persuasion, and rhetoric, as they apply to recent campaigns. Next, Chapter 4 moves to cultural bias, trust, and accountability. In Chapter 5, readers explore social media and disinformation. Chapter 6 uses the death of George Floyd to discuss race, immigration, protests, policies, and reform. Chapter 7 focuses on international issues of the pandemic, climate change, humanitarian crises, terrorism, and wars. The final chapter explores gender. There was a need for a conclusion that connected the disparate issues with the survey of theories instead of a description of Kamala Harris: “Harris’ combination of identities is called intersectionality, and women of color in politics face both race and sexist stereotypes and attacks . . . ” (p. 281). Hall, American University professor, offers a contemporary look at the intersection of media and politics but falls short of providing a comprehensive textbook. Instead, the book would work well as a supplement for undergraduate media and public opinion courses.
Joe Mathewson’s Ethical Journalism is divided into three sections: This is unacceptable; Discomfiting realities are also opportunities; and The road to success redefined. His thesis is that, “Twentieth century journalism ethics were good for America, but no longer suffice” (p. 7).
Mathewson, Northwestern University professor, turns to David Hume and the ethics of care. By “incorporating experience into our judgments” and acknowledging an “admission of natural fallibility,” Mathewson requires flexibility in “a fine journalist, or a fine newsroom” (p. 71).
Contemporary theorist Carol Gilligan’s “ethic of rights,” “equal respect, “and “ethic of responsibility” lead us to “compassion and care,” “nonviolence,” and “ethic of justice” (p. 76). A “caring journalism” emerges as a path to the Hutchins Commission (p. 81).
Ethics codes are introduced in Chapter 8, and this seems preferable to offering them too soon or burying them in an appendix. By the time readers are faced with truth, courage, accuracy, fairness, transparency, independence, correction, conflict of interest, and other foundational concepts, they are steeped in quite a bit of moral philosophy. NPR social media ethics include the idea that, “We challenge those putting information on social media too provide evidence” (p. 95). It is a simple declaration that frequently is missed by the noisy stream of chatter. Here, there is a too brief mention of defamation law—especially, at a time when social media law has been redefined by a series of key U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
Chapter 9, “The Bright Side of the Financial Pressure on the Media,” seems too brief and lacking depth (p. 104). Advertiser influence, for example, could be its own book. The chapter concludes with a paragraph about job losses and news deserts. This was a transition to the next chapter about nonprofit journalism. Again, the treatment was relatively short given its importance. We cannot assume that these emerging organizations will be more or less ethical than their commercial counterparts.
The book concludes with the ethics of care through examples of civic and public journalism. “Motivated by emotion, idealism and sometimes rationale, ethical journalists will not find it difficult to adopt the humanistic ethics of care” (p. 143). Contemporary issues, such as climate change and racial inequality, demand “ethical journalism” that “has the power to persuade and even mobilize public opinion” (p. 150). Social change, though, rarely comes quickly. Still, Ethical Journalism would be a useful reading that could spark vibrant class discussion.
Grabowski, an associate professor at Adelphi University, and Robinson, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, have blended legal and ethical concerns about online regulation. Policies can be dry for students, but the book also examines doxing, revenge porn, Bitcoin, and other popular classroom topics. University of Oregon John Marshall First Amendment Chair Kyu Ho Youm endorsed the book as “timely and comprehensive.”
The 12 chapters cover internet origins, controls and regulation, free speech, digital privacy, intellectual property, business law, network neutrality, threats, gaming, and emerging issues. These topics are fairly common within contemporary communication law and policy textbooks, but the use of visuals is notable. For example, an internet history graphic begins in 1962 at MIT (p. 10). Similarly, the Naruto monkey “selfie” photo is reproduced for a better understanding of intellectual property issues (p. 133).
I also was happy to see FTC social media influencer disclosure guidelines: “Such disclosures must be clear and conspicuous” (p. 151). Grabowski and Robinson could have gone further here in providing FTC enforcement examples, as well as the limitations of transparency within various social media sites.
The online gaming and emerging issues chapters set this book apart from others. Here, too, we can read about climate change: “Our increasingly online lives are both helping and harming the environment” (p. 216). While online connection clearly helped society function during the COVID-19 pandemic, “people increasingly engage in energy-draining activities like mining Bitcoin” (p. 217). A deeper treatment might also have explained the concepts behind nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain verification.
Each chapter concludes with a “Closing Arguments” paragraph that would be useful within a law and policy course. Similarly, “Additional Sources” offer instructors links that could be developed into assignments or classroom discussion. The “Case Index” and general “Index” also could be helpful to instructors and their students. This is a book that helps nonlawyers understand the general issues.
Brotman, Howard Distinguished Endowed Professor of Media Management and Law, interviewed eight experts about the historic impact of Hugh Heffner and Playboy magazine. In the Forward, Hefner Foundation Chair Christie Hefner quotes her father: . . . By keeping open all lines of communication in our culture, every new idea—no matter how seemingly perverse, improper, or peculiar—has its opportunity to be considered, to be challenged, and ultimately accepted or rejected by society as a whole or by some small part of it. (pp. ix-x)
In an era of #MeToo and #NotOkay, social media communication may rush to judgment about sexual mores, but Brotman’s book argues for a vigorous First Amendment exchange of ideas. His book grew from “unprecedented, unrestricted access to the complete private scrapbook collection of the late Hugh Heffner” (p. 3).
The “Playboy Interview” of writers and social leaders advance the discussion: “For Hef, the section was intended to expose readers to a wide diversity of ideas from an unprecedented range of political, cultural, and social figures . . . ” (p. 5). I wish the entire book read as well as the introduction, which emphasized that the magazine featured controversial interviews with segregationists, atheists, and activists across a wide range of political views during a turbulent time. Instead, most of the book consists of eight interview transcripts.
The research may be useful in a graduate course, and it clearly connects politics to First Amendment law and ethics. Prominent lawyer Floyd Abrams, for example, is asked to trace his earliest student interest in the First Amendment, as well as his significant cases: It’s not that there is no other way for a democratic nation to function. But the bet that we make is that avoiding the dangers of government control over speech is worth the risk that allowing more speech will do grave harm to the nation and its people. (p. 79)
The pro-speech view is that free expression rarely is dangerous, but limiting the First Amendment is unacceptable. Abrams’ First Amendment view would help students better understand the political controversies in Hall’s book, Mathewson’s journalism ethics, and Grabowski and Robinson within an online and social media context. Taken together, these four books are noteworthy additions for any journalism and media communication professor seeking fresh ideas and instructional paths.