| On the Bookshelf: Recent Books by Alumni/ae
The Newsphere
Christine M. Tracy ’95 • Peter Lang Publishing, 2012
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This book constructs a theoretical, historical, and practical framework for news as ecology. It illuminates how stories emerge and evolve across digital networks and complex systems and examines the historical and theoretical forces that are precipitating the decay of the traditional American news and information structure. The Newsphere balances critical theory and professional practice to create specific strategies that result in more effective and enlightened news production and consumption.
Christine M. Tracy, M.S. ’95, Ph.D. ’05, is associate professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Eastern Michigan University.
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Media Bias in Presidential Election
Coverage 1948-2008
David W. D’Alessio ’78 • Lexington Books, 2012
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Accusations of partisan bias in presidential election coverage are suspect at best and self-serving at worst. By meta-analyzing the results of 99 previous examinations of media coverage of presidential elections, the author reveals that coverage has no aggregate partisan bias either way, even though there are small biases in specific realms that are generally insubstantial. Yet the book predicts that no amount of evidence will cause political candidates to cease complaining about bias because such accusations have both strategic potential in campaigns and utility in ego defense.
Dave D’Alessio ’78 is an associate professor of communication sciences at the Stamford regional campus of the University of Connecticut.
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Common Enemy
Richard David Bach ’55 • CreateSpace, 2012
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When attractive young women start disappearing from Camelot Cruise ships at an alarming rate, Camelot’s billionaire owner coerces company lawyer Raam Commoner into doing whatever it takes to stop the seagoing serial killer without a story on the six o’clock news. Commoner joins forces with private investigator Kayman Karl, who fits the profile of previous victims, to stop a twisted murderer before he strikes again.
Richard David Bach ’55 was founding chair of the Environmental Law Practice Group at Stoel Rives, LLP, in Portland, Ore.
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Burdens of Proof
Jean-Francois Blanchette ’02 • The MIT Press, 2012
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The gradual disappearance of paper and its familiar evidential qualities affects almost every dimension of contemporary life. From health records to ballots, almost all documents are now digitized at some point of their life cycle, easily copied, altered, and distributed. In Burdens of Proof: Cryptographic Culture and Evidence Laws in the Age of Electronic Documents, the author examines the challenge of defining a new evidentiary framework for electronic documents, focusing on the design of a digital equivalent to handwritten signatures.
Jean-Francois Blanchette, Ph.D. ’02, is assistant professor in the Department of Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
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The Boys’ Club
Adrian M. Salee ’57 • CreateSpace, 2011
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The Boys’ Club is about a group of men who learned how to help each other to avoid or survive divorce. Each had things to say that were of vital importance to others in the group, and to their families and girlfriends as well. They met for meetings, parties, and even for excursions into the “wilds” of the dating world. They shared “aha” moments, nagging problems, and devastating losses. And they survived because they were there for each other. This is the story of how they met by accident and then grew into The Boys’ Club.
Adrian Salee ’57 has worked as a management consultant for 40 years.
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Wi-Fi and the Bad Boys of Radio
Alex Hills ’64 • Dog Ear Publishing, 2011
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After being a teenage ham operator and bringing radio, TV, and telephone service to the Eskimos of northern Alaska, Alex Hills led a small band of innovators to overcome “the bad boys of radio”—the devilishly unpredictable behavior of radio waves—and build the network that would become the forerunner to today’s Wi-Fi. This book is a story of how innovation happens, weaving together personal adventures with lucid descriptions of physical phenomena, and answering the question “How does Wi-Fi work?” in a way that is clear to everyone.
Alex Hills ’64 is Distinguished Service Professor of Engineering and Public Policy and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
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