Constructing the Heartland: Television News and Natural Disaster (The Hampton Press Communication Series. Media Ecology)

Rating:
Summary: Informative and Eye-opening!
Review: The media can do so many things that affect our everyday lives. The news does more than just report the news. Often the news is created with sound bite and quick clips of enduring images that tell a story, but not necessarily the real story.

After reading Fry's carefully constructed book, based on seemingly endless hours of research, I realized how TV news is shaping our opinions of events and perhaps misrepresenting the truth. Although the book is about media coverage of the great floods of the early '90s, Fry's sharp conclusions can be applied to current media coverage of the war in Iraq, or even the events of 9/11.

Now, more than ever, Constructing the Heartland is a must read for anyone who wants to know why and how the media spins real events to fit into TV friendly packages. After a while, you'll catch yourself switching from newscast to newscast finding many different glimpses of the same event, all based on real facts and all told in unique voices.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and Eye-opening!
Review: The media can do so many things that affect our everyday lives. The news does more than just report the news. Often the news is created with sound bite and quick clips of enduring images that tell a story, but not necessarily the real story.

After reading Fry's carefully constructed book, based on seemingly endless hours of research, I realized how TV news is shaping our opinions of events and perhaps misrepresenting the truth. Although the book is about media coverage of the great floods of the early '90s, Fry's sharp conclusions can be applied to current media coverage of the war in Iraq, or even the events of 9/11.

Now, more than ever, Constructing the Heartland is a must read for anyone who wants to know why and how the media spins real events to fit into TV friendly packages. After a while, you'll catch yourself switching from newscast to newscast finding many different glimpses of the same event, all based on real facts and all told in unique voices.