MSU School of Journalism: Heroic Journalists Share Daily Outreach Via Columns and Books
Since our publishing house was founded in —the year the iPhone and Kindle were introduced—we have urged authors to reach out in all forms of media to gather an audience, we call it a community, around their books. After all, most authors tackle the enormous challenge of writing a book because they hope to make the world a little better place, one reader at a time. We’ve often written about this goal. (For example, in this valuable earlier column, Susan Stitt explains the importance of media outreach.)
This week, we are celebrating Joe Grimm and his Michigan State University School of Journalism Bias Busters for setting an all-time high-water-mark for media outreach among our authors. As publishers, we are thrilled if an author writes a column, or blog post, once a month. After a lifetime working with newspaper reporters, Joe Grimm writes nearly every day!
Even more impressive is the way Joe flows those columns across a wide swath of social media—and right into his Amazon Author Page. (Want more on optimizing your Author Page? Check out Susan’s Author Page tips.)
Combatting Fear in the Age of Coronavirus
Over the past three years, political figures have demonized journalism—because fair, accurate and balanced news reports often are not flattering to those politicians. Charges of fake news
and even enemies of the people
are tossed around so frequently that we forget the vital role journalism plays in a democracy.
That’s precisely why Joe Grimm has taken on this heroic pace of daily writing in this season of rising fears. The entire Bias Busters project, which Joe founded and continues to manage, is based on the need to combat hate and bigotry with the fair-accurate-balanced vocation of journalism—in book and online forms.
Great Columns from Joe Grimm and Bias Busters
Here are just a few of Joe’s valuable, recent columns you can sample to get an idea of the themes he covers in his news stories:
- Pew Research Center’s free course on Islam comes by email
- Bias Busters love the Pew Research Center because it does so much good, non-partisan research and frequently revisits its work to check for changes. Now, with more than a decade of research, including surveys of Muslims in 39 countries, three surveys of Muslim Americans, and several demographic studies of the world’s major religions, Pew has created a free mini-course that arrives in four bit-sized emails.
- Coronavirus meets religion, our largest social network
- The International Association of Religion Journalists is finding plenty of stories in the outbreak of COVID-19 because, as it says,
religious groups represent the world’s largest social networks.
That factor ties many religions to the health crisis and rekindles old stereotypes. - Wash your hands, cover your cough, eat Chinese
- As we deal with what some do and others don’t call the COVID-19 pandemic, we grasp for actions we can take to regain some of our power and protect ourselves and our world. Here are three things you can do to make positive changes in different ways.
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