Built on the hands-on reporting style and curriculum pioneered by the University of Missouri, this introductory textbook teaches students how to write about and communicate with people of backgrounds that may be different from their own, offering real-world examples of how to practice excellent journalism and strategic communication that take culture into account. Specifically, the book addresses how to:
- engage with and talk across difference;
- identify the ways bias can creep into our communications, and how to mitigate our tendencies toward bias;
- use the concept of fault lines and approach sources and audiences with humility and respect;
- communicate with audiences about the complexity inherent in issues of crime, immigration, sports, health inequalities, among other topics;
- interpret census data categories and work with census data to craft stories or create strategic campaign strategies;
- reconsider common cultural assumptions about race, class, gender, identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, religion, disability, and age, and recognize their evolving and constructed meaning and our role as professional communicators in shaping national discussions of these issues.
In addition to its common sense, practical approach, the book’s chapters are written by national experts and leading scholars on the subject. Interviews with award-winning journalists, discussion questions, suggested activities, and additional readings round out this timely and important new textbook. Supplemented by additional case studies and examples of best practice, Cross-Cultural Journalism offers journalists and other communication professionals the conceptual framework and practical know-how they need to report and communicate effectively about difference.
María E. Len-Ríos is Associate Professor of Public Relations at the Grady College, University of Georgia. Before earning a doctorate in Journalism from the University of Missouri, she worked in advertising/public relations and marketing in Atlanta. She taught the cross-cultural journalism course at Missouri for ten years. In 2014-2015 she served as a board member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Earnest L. Perry is Associate Professor of Journalism Studies at the Missouri School of Journalism. Before earning a doctorate in Journalism from the University of Missouri, he worked as a newspaper journalist in Texas, Connecticut and Illinois. He is the lead instructor of the cross-cultural journalism course at Missouri, which began in 1998 and was one of the first required journalism diversity courses in the country.
