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Hate speech
Public Relations Review
Christopher I?. Campbell Race, Myth and the News Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 173 pp., $18.95, 1995 Christopher Campbell’s purpose in Race, Myth and the News is to “identify both the blatant and the subtle ways in which race is mythologized in the news” (p. 136). After conducting qualitative, interpretive analyses of televised coverage of the 1993 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Campbell concludes that television journalists contribute to the persistence of racism by maintaining stereotypes, promoting marginality, and proffering myths of assimilation. After briefly acknowledging time restraints and economic pressures faced by television journalists, Campbell charges that “when it comes to race the watchdog is snoozing comfortably in its doghouse” (p. 136). For students and professionals beginning to explore and expand their own conceptions about televised news coverage and race, this book may be insightful. By introducing the reader to such ideas as preferred readings, myth of marginality, myth of assimilation, and enlightened racism, this text provides the reader with the tools needed to scrutinize news coverage. Indeed, the first step to eliminating racism in news coverage is recognizing its varied forms; in this regard Race, Myth artd the News contributes to an understanding of race in journalism. For the scholar, however, the text offers few original insights. The book’s major weakness is its method of the study, which does not empirically allow for Campbell’s sweeping conclusions. The author’s indictments of broadcast news are based on a convenience sample of 28 television stations observed on Martin Luther King Jr., Day in 1993. From that sample, Campbell provides qualitative, interpretive readings of televised news segments selected for their demonstration of his thesis. While Campbell’s readings are insightfully conducted and presented, he draws conclusions about the broadcast news media that, though perhaps accurate, go beyond the evidence. Joye C. Gordon Nicholls State University Rita Kirk Whillock and David Slayden, eds. Hate Speech
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 294 pp., $22.95 paper, 1995 One of the most important issues facing public relations educators and practitioners is what to do when faced with “hate speech.” Rita Kirk Whillock and David Slayden attempt to widen the study of “extreme oppression” by examining it and its function across a variety of contexts. The book’s goal is worthy. Its execution, however, gets in the way of making a real contribution to understanding and neutralizing hate speech. 206
Vol. 22, No. 2
Book Reviews
The book opens with Whillock and Slayden introducing their approach to the topic. Rather than providing a model of the chapters to follow, the introduction is an overview of the approach taken (rhetorical) to the study. What follows are nine chapters that explore various aspects of hate speech. Each chapter opens with a short editorial overview of the material covered. The book concludes with an “afterword” that serves as the 10th chapter. It fails to bring us full circle, to summarize, or to offer possible solutions; instead, it explores the distinction between hate and power. Hate Speech offers an impressive list of chapter authors, each approaching the topic from their area of expertise. As most book editors realize, however, such a cast of authors often provides the reader with problems, usually rectified by establishing a theme, model or map to the book’s content. The editors’ introduction establishes an expectation of sequence that is not met (and only once is chapter content previewed). Chapter order is interesting; the reader begins with a model of hate speech that is neither culturally (European, white) or contextually (elite) similar to the rest of the book. The next seven chapters focus on a variety of contexts: political and sexual expressions of hate, expressions of hate in organizations, hate in film (visual discourse), hate as a narrative of repression and control among rapists, hate expression as seen in the abortion movement, and an analysis of the political right’s attack on the National Endowment for the Arts. Each chapter’s content is primarily North American in focus. The last “chapter” explores the First Amendment protection of hate speech, concluding with a reinforcement of the introduction-that we must listen to understand what hate speech tells us about our own culture to repudiate it. What does Hate Speech offer to the public relations educator or practitioner? For the educator, an academic analysis of extreme expressions and an unspoken call for more research. For the practitioner, a plea that, once recognized, hate speech must be liostened to, acknowledged and understood as a concept that crosses context and culture before it can be combatted. What is missing are the strategies from which to practically apply what is explored. Hate Speech helps set the context for understanding an area of communication that many public relations professionals face at one time or another, but the book’s editors fail to bring the reader full circle. They offer analysis but little practical advice. Hate Speech should be read. It may offer insight into contemporary public relations problems, but it falls short of attempting to put a practical bent to the topic, something most of the book’s nonacademic readers will be looking for. Don W. Stacks University of Miami Ralph S. Ezekiel The Racist Mind: Partratis of Neo-Nazis and IUalzsmen New York: Viking, 368 pp., $24.95, 1995 I have long advocated that the primary task of public relations is to monitor the public opinion environment and accurately interpretSummer
1996
207
Christopher I?. Campbell Race, Myth and the News Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 173 pp., $18.95, 1995 Christopher Campbell’s purpose in Race, Myth and the News is to “identify both the blatant and the subtle ways in which race is mythologized in the news” (p. 136). After conducting qualitative, interpretive analyses of televised coverage of the 1993 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Campbell concludes that television journalists contribute to the persistence of racism by maintaining stereotypes, promoting marginality, and proffering myths of assimilation. After briefly acknowledging time restraints and economic pressures faced by television journalists, Campbell charges that “when it comes to race the watchdog is snoozing comfortably in its doghouse” (p. 136). For students and professionals beginning to explore and expand their own conceptions about televised news coverage and race, this book may be insightful. By introducing the reader to such ideas as preferred readings, myth of marginality, myth of assimilation, and enlightened racism, this text provides the reader with the tools needed to scrutinize news coverage. Indeed, the first step to eliminating racism in news coverage is recognizing its varied forms; in this regard Race, Myth artd the News contributes to an understanding of race in journalism. For the scholar, however, the text offers few original insights. The book’s major weakness is its method of the study, which does not empirically allow for Campbell’s sweeping conclusions. The author’s indictments of broadcast news are based on a convenience sample of 28 television stations observed on Martin Luther King Jr., Day in 1993. From that sample, Campbell provides qualitative, interpretive readings of televised news segments selected for their demonstration of his thesis. While Campbell’s readings are insightfully conducted and presented, he draws conclusions about the broadcast news media that, though perhaps accurate, go beyond the evidence. Joye C. Gordon Nicholls State University Rita Kirk Whillock and David Slayden, eds. Hate Speech
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 294 pp., $22.95 paper, 1995 One of the most important issues facing public relations educators and practitioners is what to do when faced with “hate speech.” Rita Kirk Whillock and David Slayden attempt to widen the study of “extreme oppression” by examining it and its function across a variety of contexts. The book’s goal is worthy. Its execution, however, gets in the way of making a real contribution to understanding and neutralizing hate speech. 206
Vol. 22, No. 2
Book Reviews
The book opens with Whillock and Slayden introducing their approach to the topic. Rather than providing a model of the chapters to follow, the introduction is an overview of the approach taken (rhetorical) to the study. What follows are nine chapters that explore various aspects of hate speech. Each chapter opens with a short editorial overview of the material covered. The book concludes with an “afterword” that serves as the 10th chapter. It fails to bring us full circle, to summarize, or to offer possible solutions; instead, it explores the distinction between hate and power. Hate Speech offers an impressive list of chapter authors, each approaching the topic from their area of expertise. As most book editors realize, however, such a cast of authors often provides the reader with problems, usually rectified by establishing a theme, model or map to the book’s content. The editors’ introduction establishes an expectation of sequence that is not met (and only once is chapter content previewed). Chapter order is interesting; the reader begins with a model of hate speech that is neither culturally (European, white) or contextually (elite) similar to the rest of the book. The next seven chapters focus on a variety of contexts: political and sexual expressions of hate, expressions of hate in organizations, hate in film (visual discourse), hate as a narrative of repression and control among rapists, hate expression as seen in the abortion movement, and an analysis of the political right’s attack on the National Endowment for the Arts. Each chapter’s content is primarily North American in focus. The last “chapter” explores the First Amendment protection of hate speech, concluding with a reinforcement of the introduction-that we must listen to understand what hate speech tells us about our own culture to repudiate it. What does Hate Speech offer to the public relations educator or practitioner? For the educator, an academic analysis of extreme expressions and an unspoken call for more research. For the practitioner, a plea that, once recognized, hate speech must be liostened to, acknowledged and understood as a concept that crosses context and culture before it can be combatted. What is missing are the strategies from which to practically apply what is explored. Hate Speech helps set the context for understanding an area of communication that many public relations professionals face at one time or another, but the book’s editors fail to bring the reader full circle. They offer analysis but little practical advice. Hate Speech should be read. It may offer insight into contemporary public relations problems, but it falls short of attempting to put a practical bent to the topic, something most of the book’s nonacademic readers will be looking for. Don W. Stacks University of Miami Ralph S. Ezekiel The Racist Mind: Partratis of Neo-Nazis and IUalzsmen New York: Viking, 368 pp., $24.95, 1995 I have long advocated that the primary task of public relations is to monitor the public opinion environment and accurately interpretSummer
1996
207