January 11, 2007

Sociologist-author Klinenberg to deliver Jan. 18 Crain Lecture

New York University sociologist Eric Klinenberg will speak about the corporate takeover of local news and what it means for all Americans when he delivers the first Crain Lecture of 2007 Thursday, Jan. 18. 

Titled “Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media,” the 4 p.m. lecture in the McCormick Tribune Center Forum is free and open to the public.

The lecture title takes its title from Klinenberg’s latest book, which was published Jan. 9 by Metropolitan Books. His first book was a widely acclaimed “social autopsy” that detailed how Chicago’s 1995 heat wave claimed the lives of more than 700 city residents.

In “Fighting for Air,” Klinenberg depicts a world of empty TV news stations, pre-programmed radio shows and copycat newspapers that he argues are a result of the federal government’s “malign neglect.”