News and Sexuality

The Accrediting Council of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) recently added sexual orientation to its revised diversity standards. This means that journalism schools seeking accreditation or re-accreditation must develop a curriculum that fosters an understanding of issues and perspectives that is inclusive in terms of gender, race, ethnicity – and sexual orientation. This volume, containing original material written for this text, is designed to satisfy the requirement by the ACEJMC that all journalism departments teach sexual diversity. Moving from description, to analysis, to application, the text includes the history of media coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (GLBTI) issues; and coverage of important contemporary issues in the news, such as "Don′t Ask, Don′t Tell," the rise of GLBTI families, and AIDS.

News and Sexuality: Media Portraits of Diversity is a practical teaching tool that will help educators meet these new accreditation standards by addressing these complex and often controversial issues, providing additional resources, discussion questions, suggested homework assignments, and a glossary of terms. Student journalists must be equipped to bring a general knowledge of sexual diversity issues to the table as part of their professional education repertoire. And any adult who consumes media messages, whether or not they work in media, also must be able to spot inaccurate or biased reporting

Key Features:

• Moves from description, to analysis, to application, putting issues and episodes into context.
• All readings are original and written for this text.
• Contains student study guides within each chapter with resources, including Websites, books, and videos.
• Concludes each chapter with discussion questions, assignments, and activities that bring the issues to life for students.
• Chapter-opening photographs highlight key historical and contemporary events in news media coverage of sexual diversity.
• Includes a style guide prepared by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association