Grassroots Journalism

Review "...[the author] insists that journalism devoted to forwarding a cause--environment, workers' rights, consumerism--must be fair to both sides..." -- Columbia Journalism Review, January/February 2001 "...accessible to anyone frustrated by mainstream reporting and should become much more than just another journalism textbook." -- Metro Active (web site for Metro Santa Cruz), February 21-28, 2001"Reporters disillusioned by the descent of their field into PR and photo ops might read GRASSROOTS JOURNALISM..." -- Extra! Update, December 2000NYU Professor William Serrin: "Business and government...pay...to get their sides...to the public. This balances the scales." -- Capitola Book Cafe Review, current web siteThe book's subtitle tells it all. A nuts and bolts guide to writing news that creates change. -- SoJo Net (Sojourners Magazine), March-April 2001 Product Description This is a how-to-do-it book for the kind of newswriting that does not just get people aroused, but gets them engaged in the struggle to build a better world. Chapters cover such subjects as real-world case studies where grassroots journalism has worked, the nuts and bolts of writing grassroots news articles, how to make sure your articles are read, and how the mainstream mass-media undermine democracy by suppressing stories that challenge the status quo. Indispensible for journalists and journalism students who want to explore the wide-open job market. A valuable tool for citizens who want to make a difference. About the Author Eesha Williams is a Visiting Lecturer in Community Journalism at Williams College. He has been a reporter at weekly newspapers in New York, Illinois, and California. He has worked as a stringer for the Associated Press, and his reporting has appeared in numerous national magazines, including NATIONAL FISHERMAN and the United Auto Workers 1.3-million circulation magazine, SOLIDARITY. Between journalism jobs, Eesha has been one of the workers he writes about. He has worked as a carpenter, cook, organic farm manager, office temp, airport shuttle bus driver, house painter, waiter, ski lift operator, and vegetable picker. He has an honors degree in Community Studies, with a minor in Journalism, from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He lives on eastern Long Island, New York, where he is from.