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How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation
Palgrave Macmillan
November 2012
On Sale: October 30, 2012
288 pages ISBN: 0230341829 EAN: 9780230341821 Kindle: B008YBCV2C Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
Gone is the era of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite,
when news programs fought to gain the trust and respect of a
wide spectrum of American viewers. Today, the
fastest-growing news programs and media platforms are
fighting hard for increasingly narrow segments of the public
and playing on old prejudices and deep-rooted fears,
coloring the conversation in the blogosphere and the cable
news chatter to distract from the true issues at stake.
Using the same tactics once used to mobilize political
parties and committed voters, they send their fans coded
messages and demonize opposing groups, in the process
securing valuable audience share and website traffic.
Race-baiter is a term born out of this tumultuous climate,
coined by the conservative media to describe a person who
uses racial tensions to arouse the passion and ire of a
particular demographic. Even as the election of the first
black president forces us all to reevaluate how we think
about race, gender, culture, and class lines, some areas of
modern media are working hard to push the same old buttons
of conflict and division for new purposes. In Race-Baiter,
veteran journalist and media critic Eric Deggans dissects
the powerful ways modern media feeds fears, prejudices, and
hate, while also tracing the history of the word and its
consequences, intended or otherwise.
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