Two vital and dynamite topics are merged into one book. Alert the Media studies how the American Indian Movement (AIM), a major political movement sweeping the country in the 1970s used, and was used by the mass media. Chapter topics include: Movement toward Social Change (basis of motivation, goals, structure and methods); Mass Media - Power and Responsibility (cultural history and development); American Indian Culture (language, beliefs, and institutions); American Indian Movement (AIM formation and foundation, leadership objectives and failures, and the trail of broken treaties); Wounded Knee - 1973 (General Custer in South Dakota, Wounded Knee Massacre, Chairman Wilson, and media involvement); Testimony of Douglas Durham, FBI Operative; and Dennis Banks in Oregon. The intense interaction between the mass media and mass movements such as AIM has generated undercurrents of public discontent and dissatisfaction with the media. The media's perceived participation in and encouragement of undesirable activities and repetition of messages connected with the increasing number of political and social causes and movements adds to a political polarization. Students of media, political science, and Native American culture and causes will be as interested in Alert the Media, as well as those readers who wish to become more educated and intelligent consumers of news. The public cannot rest its own responsibility for discernment on the shoulders of media representatives. Individuals have a responsibility to treat news and political commentary as they would treat any other commodity.
About the Author: Marilyn Catherine McDonald (Smith), a professional writer since 1967, self- published two books in her early seventies - Little Girl Lost: A True Story of Tragic Death and Mother of Eight Survives Population Explosion: Just Between Us Column Selections. She earned her BS from Portland State University in 1975 and an MA in Communications from the University of Portland in 1977. Then, as a single parent with six of her eight children still at home she returned to the work force for the first time in 25 years. She climbed the corporate ladder in hospital public relations and publication production, owned an advertising agency, and served as an officer in several professional organizations. In addition, she volunteered as a suicide/crisis hotline counselor, a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for abused and neglected children, and a recovery counselor to women in prison. With hundreds of newspaper and magazine feature stories to her credit, she now writes books and articles. Marilyn and her retired Air Force husband Harry Taylor are world travelers. They're at home in Central Oregon for the summers and spend their winters along the Sea of Cortez in San Felipe, Baja, Mexico.