Communication Policy / Politiques de communication course blog, Winter 2008

Image from Marsha Vdovin

Communication Technologies and Gender course blog, Winter 2008

Image from Marsha Vdovin

Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.
Wow, I knew Uncle Miltie was shady but I didn’t realize how deep his Chicago Boys went. Read Joseph Stiglitz’s review in The NY Times. I can’t wait to assign this book in one of my classes…

Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, 2006. NY: Norton.

Journalist Goldberg crossed the U.S. to examine how entrenched Christian fundamentalism has become in local, municipal, state and federal bureaucracies…in often subtle ways, but in other more egregious forms - from faith based initiatives (Bush’s gravy train) to abstinence only sex ed classes in high schools to debates over intelligent design to stripping away gay rights to the rise of mega-churches. Scary.

Read alongside Tom Perrotta’s The Abstinence Teacher,

, a hilarious look at suburban sexual angst. I never finished it though….so I missed whether or not the two main characters ever resolved their tension and … did it. "It’s a book about abstinence, Mom, what do you think?"

Framing the Black Panthers, by Jane Rhodes. The New Press, 2007.
A fascinating look both at how the Panthers strategically used the mass media while creating their own iconography and newspaper, and how the U.S. (and international) media portrayed the Panthers during the late 60s-70s.