‘People’s Movements, People’s Press’ by Bob Ostertag

People’s Movements, People’s Press: The Journalism of Social Justice Movements by Bob Ostertag (Beacon Press, 2006) offers an invaluable look at the history of social movements and their media.

These early newspapers and magazines were the principle means of transmission in isolated communities and served to mobilize people around movements for civil rights.

This book also charts the history of communication technology, which placed the power of publishing into the hands of more and more people.

Desktop publishing software puts the same tools at my disposal — whether producing club newsletters, a lending library brochure or doing layouts for a daily newspaper. The only difference from a layout perspective is in the publication’s scale — broadsheet and tabloid instead of letter-size paper.

It really helps me in my daily profession as a newspaper editor, to be on the distribution list of locally-produced newsletters. They help me be informed and, in turn, inform the paper’s readers by reprinting a newsletter item with noted attribution.