I think we should all have our own radio show like Doug. Come to think of it anthropology would do good to have its own Louis or Doug or Michael at the mike!
Brian McKenna In a message dated 3/10/09 12:44:44 PM Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: > Counterpunch, March 10, 2009 > Shortchanging Citizens, Damaging the Profession > How Anthropology Disparages Journalism > > By BRIAN McKENNA > > Where is anthropology's Ida Tarbell? Its I.F. Stone? Its Lincoln > Steffens? All were outstanding journalists, chroniclers of the culture, > resources and power of their times. > > And where is anthropology's Juan Cole? Its Stanley Aronowitz? Its Noam > Chomsky? A historian, sociologist and linguist respectively. All are > academicians. All are well known public writers. > > With an upcoming Yalta-esque American Anthropology Association > conference in December 2009 titled, "The End/s of Anthropology," > academic anthropology continues to worry about its future while > imploring its members to get more involved in public life outside of the > ivy. Of course that's something applied anthropologists (in the > break-away Society for Applied Anthropology) have been doing for > decades. One wonders how the conference will showcase journalism, one of > the most consequential forms of public anthropology. Typically the > anthropology profession - both academic and applied - looks skeptically > at journalism. > > A common refrain among academic anthropologists is this: "I never talk > to journalists, they always get me wrong. I just can't trust them." > Whenever I hear this my mind churns, "Then why don't you become the > journalist and write it yourself?" Applied anthropologists are more > inclined to write an occasional journalistic piece, but it's not viewed > as a central focus of applied work. Again, why not become the seasoned > journalist? > > Is there a career danger for an anthropologist in wanting to be a > relevant, publicly engaged writer? Maybe. Consider, why is it that some > of U.S. culture's most talented writers, like David Moberg (senior > editor for In These Times) and Kurt Vonnegut felt as though they had to > drop out of anthropology graduate programs, (University of Chicago) just > inches from the dissertation finish line, to become public > communicators, public intellectuals, novelists and journalists? > > Hermetically Sealed Classroom, Dusty Journals > > Too many academic anthropologists are marooned in the coffin-boxes of > university classrooms, their pearls of wisdom echoing wistfully off of > hermetically sealed-walls. Paradoxically, just outside of campus bounds, > local TV and radio programs - which can potentially educate millions - > are staffed by their freshly minted (and inexperienced) former students! > These are campus graduates of journalism, broadcast communications, > speech, and/or theater programs where they were groomed in the practical > arts of elocution and head bobbing for the airwaves and/or TV cameras. > According to the FCC, these are supposed to be democratic public > airwaves. But in practice, under corporate hegemony, they are mostly off > limits to Ph.D.s, social scientists and even investigative journalists, > i.e. thinkers and social critics. Anthropologists must fight for access > to these spaces. Meanwhile they must circulate their voices in a > multitude of public fora in local newspapers, the alternative press, the > Internet, public television and public radio. > > I worked as a development consultant on FRESH AIR with Terry Gross in > Philadelphia in 1991. The show now reaches 4.5 million listeners daily > and is in Europe on the World Radio Network. Ms. Gross and her > colleagues have featured the work of numerous anthropologists such as > David Kertzer, Peter Goldsmith, Sam Charters (musical anthropologist) > and medical anthropologists Paul Farmer and Terry Graedon. When I left > to pursue a Ph.D. I told Ms. Gross and her staff, "you help do the work > of a great many anthropologists, getting the message out about their > work. Keep it up." The broadcast could conceivably profile an > anthropologist every week to great effect, but does not. We cannot > depend on what Anthony Giddens called the double hermeneutic > (interpreters of our interpretations) line of gatekeepers like Gross for > our public media education. Anthropologists have no choice. They must > become media makers and journalists themselves. This will be tough in a > field, anthropology, that does not provide systematic education on "how > to become a public intellectual" in its curricula, pedagogy, modes of > evaluation or reward structure. > > full: http://www.counterpunch.org/mckenna03102009.html > _______________________________________________ > ************** A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1219671244x1201345076/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID %3D62%26bcd%3DfebemailfooterNO62)
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