by Alison Bass | Jan 18, 2022 | Uncategorized
When I moved to West Virginia to teach journalism in 2012, I ran head-on into stereotypes about Appalachia, mostly from acquaintances who had never been to the region. Misconceptions about ignorant white hillbillies abounded. When I told one of my Mom’s doctors...
by Alison Bass | Jan 10, 2022 | Uncategorized
I was visiting family in California recently and made the mistake of going up to Los Angeles to visit other relatives at a time when Omicron was surging in LA. As it turned out, my relatives had been exposed to the virus by their unvaccinated daughter who stayed at...
by Alison Bass | Dec 26, 2021 | Uncategorized
There has been a steady drumbeat about the deterioration of local and regional news throughout the country, largely because the internet, media consolidation, and now COVID has eviscerated news outlets’ primary business model: advertising. So I thought it would...
by Alison Bass | Dec 14, 2021 | Uncategorized
A friendly Afghan man named Fazel was my Lyft driver on a recent trip from Washington Dulles Airport into the city, and as we talked during the long ride, I learned that Fazel was driving 11 to 12 hours a day to support not only his wife and two young children but...
by Alison Bass | Dec 6, 2021 | Uncategorized
At a recent book talk I gave, a student at West Virginia University asked me how the media could improve its credibility with the public. I noted that the “media” was not a monolithic entity, but a diverse number of information outlets, some way more...
by Alison Bass | Nov 30, 2021 | Uncategorized
When I lived in Boston in my 20s, another young woman who also lived in the Back Bay, a nurse, was brutally raped and murdered by a man, who, if my recollection is correct, got into her apartment through an open window. I remember thinking about why this guy, who was...
