Includes bibliographical references (p. [379]-430) and index.

The age of newspapers. "Barbarous Indians" and "rebellious Negroes" ; In the mail : the post office, the press and the mass political party ; Inciting to riot : the age of Jackson -- Rebel voices. A new democratic press ; Priests, mobs, and know-nothings : the early Spanish-language press ; The Indian war of words ; To plead our own cause : the early Black press ; "The Chinese must go!" -- The age of news networks. Wiring the news ; The Progressive Era and the colored press -- The age of broadcasting. Words with wings ; Trouble in the streets ; Other voices : Amos 'n' Andy, the "Sunshine Lady" and Los Madrugadores ; Uniting the home front ; The color line and the public interest : the post-War period ; Fierce rebellion, furious reaction : 1963-2003 -- The age of the Internet. Controlling the means of transmission : old media's fall and new media's rise.

"Here is a new, sweeping narrative history of American news media that puts race at the center of the story. From the earliest colonial newspapers to the Internet age, America's racial divisions have played a central role in the creation of the country's media system, just as the media has contributed to--and every so often, combated--racial oppression. News for All the People reveals how racial segregation distorted the information Americans received from the mainstream media. It unearths numerous examples of how publishers and broadcasters actually fomented racial violence and discrimination through their coverage. And it chronicles the influence federal media policies exerted in such conflicts. It depicts the struggle of Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American journalists who fought to create a vibrant yet little-known alternative, democratic press, and then, beginning in the 1970s, forced open the doors of the major media companies."--from publisher's description.