Anselm House: Truth-Telling & Communities of Faith

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Can communities of faith complement the academy? A longtime veteran of the journalism world, Dr. Ruth DeFoster believes so. And when one’s vocation is truth-telling, it’s easy to see how one comes to that conclusion.

The Minnesota Daily: Opinion: Fame is just a job

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The cultural iconography of the small-town girl turned big-time pop star is one of the most tried and true tropes of American popular culture. While it is a prevalent American dream, it often seems to turn young starlets’ lives into nightmares. 

With the rise of social media, it’s easy for the public to feel like they’ve broken the fourth wall. We as consumers of celebrity culture and media love to claim our righteous take on authenticity and transparency. Of course, the media has caught wind of this and now, it seems nearly every celebrity is “authentic” and “relatable.” 

The Minnesota Daily: The fascination and glorification of criminals like Luigi Mangione

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Since the world saw Luigi Mangione’s unmasked face, memes began to spread around his looks, and campaigns for his freedom took the internet by storm. 

Photos of Mangione, who was identified and charged in the murder of UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Brian Thompson, can be found all over social media. One commentator compared this flood of pictures to an “endless photo shoot.”

NiemanLab:
How mainstream media failed the Atlanta shooting victims

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Ruth DeFoster is the director of undergraduate studies at the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a former journalist who researches American media coverage of large-scale tragedies. She’s been surveying journalists from top newsrooms, asking them whether their workplaces have policies for covering mass shootings. “To my surprise,” she said, “I am finding that the answer is no.”

Minnesota Reformer:
Data show racial bias in reporting from popular Twin Cities crime media network

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Ruth DeFoster, a University of Minnesota professor who specializes in media depictions of crime and terrorism, cautioned that police data should not be used as a proxy for the prevalence of crime by people of any given race, because evidence suggests people of color are over-policed, especially when it comes to traffic stops.

MPR News:
Use of ‘terrorism’ label depends on questions of rhetoric, law

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DeFoster said there's no consensus on what terrorism is. "You'd be hard pressed to find any two law enforcement officials, law enforcement entities, any two policymakers, any two journalists who are going to define terrorism the same way," she said. "That's the problem."

Public Interest Communications: What Is It? How Do You Do It? Why Should You?

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Do you wear a seat belt? Most Americans do. Why? An effective 1970s communications campaign aimed at a greater good and reduced car accident fatalities.

How about the anti-smoking movement? Same-sex marriage legalization? The awareness of racial covenants’ role in the history of housing segregation and discrimination? All are examples of Public Interest Communication (PIC), which uses strategic communications to achieve positive social change. PIC connects activists and policy makers with academic researchers and teachers to create science-based, action-focused communications with the goal of improving people’s lives.