Giving Television a Second Chance
Teleliteracy
By David Bianculli
Continuum
Book review by
Carl Sessions Stepp
Carl Sessions Stepp (cstepp@umd.edu) began writing for his hometown paper, the Marlboro Herald-Advocate in Bennettsville, South Carolina, in 1963, after his freshman year in high school. He studied journalism at the University of South Carolina, where he edited The Gamecock. After college, he worked for the St. Petersburg Times and the Charlotte Observer before becoming the first national editor at USA Today in 1982. In 1983, he joined the University of Maryland journalism faculty full time. In the ensuing 30 years, he also has served as senior editor and book reviewer for AJR, writing dozens of pieces. He has been a visiting writing and editing coach for news organizations in more than 30 states.
Teleliteracy
By David Bianculli
Continuum
316 pages; $24.95
B
Stepp, a WJR senior editor, teaches at the University of Maryland College of Journalism. Briefly.. Through Jaundiced Eyes — How the Media View Organized
Labor, by William J. Puette (ILR Press, 229 pages, $16.95): "Virulently negative" is the author's opinion in this book published by Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and he provides convincing examples from movies, televison, newspapers and editorial cartoons. The media, he believes, unfairly associate unions with corruption, intransigence and bloody conflict, while slighting similar faults of management. What Puette doesn't address is: Why? The Power of Babble, by Norman Solomon (Dell, 298 pages, $5.99): A clever collection of "political buzz-words and doubletalk." Example: "Joe Six-packs: ..can be heard as a respectful reference to populist sentiment, or..down-the-nose mockery of average working people."
— C.S.S.
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