Random Shots
2010s
Bird Chatter
Photo Essay
Automotive deaths: Where are our memorials?
We don’t like to talk about how automobiles can be deadly. This is most obviously seen in the car buff media, where a “boys with toys” mentality prevails. Hey, don’t spoil our fun by bringing […]
Quotes
The crucial difference between access and accountability journalism
“These are two different views of journalism’s very purpose, forever in competition for status, resources, and power. These approaches require different skills, different practices, and different sources, and produce radically different representations of reality. Access […]
Quotes
Auto history: A bastion of older white male privilege?
“Longtime Lurker, but I would say that despite being an earnest attempt to open up dialogue, some of the above comments would probably point to why there isn’t actually a lot of female participation on […]
Media Analysis
Automotive News enables denialism and conspiracies about COVID-19
Automotive News‘ comment sections enable denialism and conspiracies about COVID-19. This is unfortunate because the trade journal has otherwise offered good coverage of the pandemic. For example, Automotive News recently posted a poignant story about […]
Random Shots
Editor's Note
What’s new for May
The American auto industry’s religious devotion to bigger, glitzier and more powerful cars shifted into overdrive after World War II. This month’s front page shows a number of different facets of this phenomenon. Our top […]
Media Analysis
Wheel spinning happens when car buffs and scholarly historians don’t collaborate
Car buffs and academics may as well live on different planets when it comes to writing automotive history. Yet they need each other to counterbalance their weaknesses. That’s my takeaway from John A. Heitmann’s essay […]
Bird Chatter