Newspapers and Neighborhoods:
Strategies for
Achieving Responsible Coverage of Local Communities
This new volume brings together three articles that explore different aspects of the relationship between local communities and the newspapers that print stories about them. Each was written independently of the others and offers a different perspective and a different framework with which to examine newspapers and neighborhoods. They are linked by their common concern for how, as author Byron White states the issue, "the media and citizens are missing each other" and why newspaper coverage of neighborhoods sometimes fails to satisfy local residents.
In "A Guide to Developing a Community-Based Strategy
for Influencing Local Neighborhood Coverage," Byron White frames the issues
from the perspectives of newspaper reporters and editors, suggests ways that
citizens can make a difference in terms of the coverage their neighborhood receives,
and provides examples from a newspaper's business pages as a model of balanced
coverage.
In "A Case Study of a Neighbourhood Coalition's
Program to Influence Newspaper Coverage," Ruth Morris relates the story of how
several neighborhoods in metropolitan Toronto organized around the issue of
negative media coverage, and formed a coalition to fight against the biased
and disrespectful images of their communities that were regularly being presented
in local papers. The article also discusses the coalition's activities to educate
and mobilize citizens about what they have termed "neighbourhoodism" in the
media.
In "A Research Report on Newspaper Portrayals
of Six Neighbourhoods in Metropolitan Toronto" (excerpts from a previously published
report), Eva Weinroth, Suzanne F. Jackson, and Keith Schloskey present several
components of a study of newspaper portrayals of six neighborhoods in metropolitan
Toronto. This article examines coverage in detail, including both headline and
content analyses of neighborhood coverage in several local papers.
U.S. Prices (including shipping and handling): $12.00 per book.
Canada: add $3 per book (for shipping and handling).