Education Commons^™

The Cherokee-Freedmen Story: What The Media Saw, Ronald Smith

Ronald D Smith APR

National media and international journalists watched in March 2007, as voters in the Cherokee Nation decided issues of citizenship. Reporters looked at the same situation and often talked with the same people, but they didn’t always see the same story.

Some journalists saw the Cherokee-Freedmen story as one about race and civil rights; some saw it as being about Cherokee sovereignty and Indian identity. This content analysis investigates media reporting on the issue.

Two Polls Show Media And Government Out Of Step With The Public, Ronald Smith

Ronald D Smith APR

It makes for an interesting and unusual image -- public opinion marching down the path of social progress; government and the news media on the other side, out of step with the people who make up the media-using citizenry.

The specifics of this report deal with taxation proposals in New York State, but close your eyes and you'll see the obvious parallels throughout ther country in dozens of situations in which states tell Indian tribes and nations what they should or should not do, or what the state would like to do to them.

Fundamentally, this report deals with the …