The Media Elite

The first volume of a research project conducted by Smith College political scientist Rothman and Columbia University researchers Robert and Linda Lichter, this is an outstanding study. It opens with a profile of today's ""typical'' media worker: an upper-middle-class, white, male college graduate earning 30,000-50,000 a year, whose parents are college graduates, perhaps professionals. It is notable that 68% come from Northeastern or north-central cities and have little sympathy for small-town America; few attend church or synagogue. The authors proceed to demonstrate that media people's regional and class prejudices determine their handling of the news: they are distinctly against nuclear energy (although many experts are not), strongly pro-busing (despite the compelling arguments against the practice) and furiously antibig oil. No one concerned with the media can afford to pass by this searching examination. Photos. (October 8)