S. Elizabeth Bird (Interviewer)

News We Can Use: An Audience Perspective on the Tabloidisation of News in the United States

AbstractIn the United States, television news is where the issue of tabloidisation is most loudly debated, as news merges into the countless talk shows and syndicated “reality” programming. While critics often place the blame on the journalism profession itself, I focus on the audience drive toward tabloidisation, critiquing both the uncritical celebration of the “active” audience, and the view that audiences are simply mindless recipients of whatever journalists feed them. Using data from a small study of news audiences, I argue that we must understand the value of dramatic, narrative news in everyday life. At the same time, I argue that the storytelling news style, characterised by disconnected, highly personal narratives, is in danger of replacing rational, considered, and critical analysis in news. In particular, young people are becoming less interested in news, and less critical of the techniques typical of tabloid style. I conclude that we must strive to develop a journalism that could embrace tabl...

Chatting on Cynthia's porch: Creating community in an e‐mail fan group

This is an enthnographic study of an e‐mail list devoted to fans of the television show Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. The central question is whether e‐mail groups can function as “communities,” and if so, how. I examine the practices of the list members, including the establishment of rules, nurturing of community, and communal fantasy activities. I conclude that although virtual communities are not the same as face‐to‐face communities, they may indeed function as communities for members, although they do not necessarily do so. I call for closer examination of different kinds of on‐line activities, rather than taking extreme positions on the Internet as either the panacea for lost community or the harbinger of the destruction of close, personal affiliations.

The Asaba massacre and the Nigerian civil war: reclaiming hidden history

This article explores the consequences of a massacre of civilians in Asaba, a town on the west bank of the river Niger, during the early stages of the Nigerian civil war. While ethnically Igbo, Asaba was not part of the Igbo-dominated Biafra, remaining part of the ethnically diverse midwest region. In the international memory of the war, the midwest action, which claimed several thousand lives, has been eclipsed by the catastrophic events east of the Niger, after the federal blockade of Biafra. This article sheds new light on the human cost of the war on civilian populations outside Biafra. Drawing on interviews with survivors and their descendants, we describe the killings, pillaging and rapes that followed the arrival of the federal troops, and trace the long-term impact and memory of the physical and human devastation in Asaba on family structure, gender roles, educational opportunities and social structure. We show how the official suppression of the massacres, coupled with Biafran awareness of the events, contributed to the subsequent course of the war, and we suggest that this suppression has left a legacy that perpetuates resentment and has kept ethnic tensions alive to this day.

News at Work: Imitation in an Age of Information Abundance

In The Tender Cut, Patricia Adler and Peter Adler present the largest, to date, qualitative sociologically-grounded investigation of the lived experience of a non-clinical population of people who self-injure. Drawing on data from over 135 in-depth life history interviews, the authors go beyond the interpersonal and psychological dynamics behind the ‘‘self-injurer’’ to examine the larger world that situates, provokes, and even reinforces the need to engage in self-injury for people who clearly are not a homogeneous population. The social transformation of the practice of self-injury as it has increased in social acceptability and moved beyond the act of an isolated individual to that of a person embedded in a ‘‘real’’ or cyber community (where they note it is still possible for a self-injurer to feel excluded) is documented, as well as the self-presentation of self-injurers on the internet (e.g., the roles different people take in the groups) and the relationships between people who self-injure. The patience, empathy, and understanding of the authors is also evident as they neither demonize the act, nor stigmatize or alienate those who shared their stories; rather they expose in a dignified manner the turmoil, angst, fear, impulsivity, ritual, stress and pain, among other factors, behind the act of self-injury. The strengths of the book are multifold. Adler and Adler present self-injury (broadly defined to include behaviors such as cutting, burning, hair pulling, picking, and bone breaking) as a way some people cope with the challenges, stresses, and difficulties they experience in life. They explain that there is no typical self-injurer or typical start to the injurious career; the only commonality among many self-injurers is the experience of stress. They note the role of social living and personal experiences or exposure in the instigation of the self-injurious career. The authors also take into account how selfinjuring has moved from a psychological ‘‘disorder’’ into a learned social trend— a ‘‘sociological occurrence’’ (p. 3) situated in subcultures and, even at times, resembling a ‘‘fad.’’ It is established, via sampling a ‘‘sociological population’’ of self-injurers that ranged from youths to persons in their mid-fifties, that self-injury is more common among the population than the authors initially anticipated. They noted similarities and differences between the struggles of self-injurers across all ages and described the increased alienation felt by older selfcutters, as the normative attitude suggests these older self-cutters should have ‘‘grown out of it’’ (p. 34). Theoretically, the manuscript adds support to the feminist critique of the medical model’s ‘‘disempowerment of self-injurers,’’ theoretically addresses the gendered context in which self-injury is framed, and expands interactionist and other theoretical views. Although methodologically strong, the authors do not provide an overview of the demographics of their sample. Given that the experiences of people who self-injure appear, on many levels, to parallel those of people who self-harm through other means or use other negative coping behaviors (e.g., alcoholics, drug users, bulimics, anorexics, etc.) and that some interviewees were noted to practice other negative coping behaviors, extended reporting of demographics could assist the reader to substantiate the sample. Moreover, providing additional information on these explicit factors may clarify what aspects of the self-injurer experience result from their injurious career, or if some part of their experience or motivation to continue to self-injure is more appropriately viewed as a consequence of other negative coping mechanisms. The weakest point of the book is the lack of an explicitly embodied analysis of self-injury. The reader is left wondering how the scaring

Picturing Indians: Photographic Encounters and Tourist Fantasies in H.H. Bennett's Wisconsin Dells (review)

‘‘The highest form of the geographer’s art is producing good regional geography— evocative descriptions that facilitate an understanding and appreciation of places, areas, and regions,’’ (Hudson, 2009, p. 1). This statement epitomizes Hart’s research agenda and is expressed throughout the other 12 chapters. Hart’s publications place him squarely in the area studies or regional tradition, and therefore in later decades a somewhat lonely voice among the recent plethora of ‘‘isms’’ in the discipline. A listing of a few of the chapter titles reflects Hart’s fundamental interests in geography: ‘‘Reading the Landscape’’; ‘‘Tobacco Barns and Their Role in the Tobacco Economy of the United States’’; ‘‘Urban Encroachment on Rural Areas’’; and ‘‘Mobile Home Parks.’’ The collection reflects Hart’s careful field work and his love of maps. The book also includes a gallery of 7 photographs of the U.S. rural landscape taken by Fraser Hart, plus an excellent full-bodied photograph of Fraser himself holding a topographic map, complete with his ever-present bow tie. In addition to the references cited, the book provides a listing of Fraser Hart’s 16 books, published from 1952 to his two books published in 2008. A Love of the Land: Selected Writings of John Fraser Hart encapsulates the long, prodigious career of a genuine professional geographer, still teaching at the University of Minnesota at age 85. Thank you, John Hudson. Thank you John Fraser Hart, whose writings and teachings have touched thousands, including this reviewer during my graduate days at Indiana University, 1961–1964.