ABSTRACT
This book examines how the media approached long-standing and long-simmering issues of race, class, violence, and social responsibility in Baltimore during the demonstrations, violence, and public debate in the spring of 2015. Contributors take Baltimore to be an important place, symbol, and marker, though the issues are certainly not unique to Baltimore: they have crucial implications for contemporary journalism in the U.S. These events prompt several questions: How well did journalism do, in Baltimore, nearby and nationally, in explaining the endemic issues besetting Baltimore? What might have been done differently? What is the responsibility of journalists to anticipate and cover these problems? How should they cover social problems in urban areas? What do the answers to such questions suggest about how journalists should in future cover such problems?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|81 pages
News and the Politics of Place
chapter 2|22 pages
Renewing the Lease
chapter 4|19 pages
The Sociological Eye in the News
part 2|75 pages
Voices, Visibility and the Public Sphere
chapter 7|19 pages
Linked Fates
chapter 8|19 pages
The Black Press and Baltimore
part 3|79 pages
Journalistic Discourse and Criticism
chapter 12|21 pages
Who Speaks for Baltimore?
part 4|16 pages
Conclusion