Choice 评论

Why yet another book about the O. J. Simpson trial? Because this one illuminates the cultural media event with clarity, freshness, rigorous scholarship, and with insights that inform both black and white readers. Hunt (Univ. of Southern California), a former staff member of the US Commission on Civil Rights and author of Screening the Los Angeles "Riots" (CH, Jun'97), is a black man who has resided in Los Angeles for 20 years. He uses contributions from sociology, culture studies, and his own excellent, original scholarship to analyze press and public responses to this media event. Hunt focuses not on questions of innocence or guilt, but rather on epistemological issues, "tracing the process by which we all (re)affirm what we 'know' about 'reality.' " Using a sophisticated research design, he examines how black and white newsworkers and news consumers shape information into views of reality. For example, most white newsworkers and news consumers regarded police information about the murders and Simpson's relation to them as factual. By contrast, most black newsworkers and consumers regarded police information as testimony but not necessarily as factual. Hunt concludes that racially influenced ways of seeing powerfully shape the process by which people construct social realities. Transcripts of media texts studied, thorough bibliography, and useful chapter notes. All levels. S. H. Hildahl; Wells College