About Me

Gorelick, Steve

Office: HN 402-A
E-mail: Steven.Gorelick@hunter.cuny.edu

Current Research Projects: The Intersection of Disease, Disaster, Digital Media, and Networked Journalism; New Media, Culture, and the Exoneration of the Innocent

Bio: When I was eight years old and living in the Los Angeles suburb of West Covina in 1959, one of the most well-known physicians in our town, Dr. Bernard Finch — along with his accomplice and secretary Carole Tregoff — murdered his wife. We were stunned, and our sleepy suburb became the focus of a national media feeding frenzy. The subsequent trial, conviction, mistrials, and imprisonment received extraordinary attention.

Since that moment as an 8 year-old — as I followed the case and refused my Grandpa’s requests that I stop collecting gory and sensational news clippings — I have pursued a lifelong interest in how the reality of crime and violence is constructed and understood in media and culture.

I moved to New York in 1974, lured by both an abundance of crime and violence and a non-stop, frenzied news environment, and eventually earned an M.A. degree in media studies from Columbia University and a Ph.D. degree in sociology with specializations in criminology and media studies from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Along the way, I got fascinated by the impact of high profile acts of violence on communities, media institutions and the fabric of social life.

I also enjoy observing how journalists, artists and other culture workers come to terms with violence in diverse forms that include documentary film, news, journalism, theatre, performance art, music, literature, entertainment television, new media and all of the visual arts. My publications have appeared in the Journal of Crime and Delinquency, the Media Studies Journal of the Freedom Forum at Columbia University, and Children’s Beat: A Journal of Media Coverage.

In 2007-2008, I was proud to serve as an adviser to the 2007 – 2008 20th anniversary season of the PBS series P.O.V., television’s longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. I also advise local governments and federal agencies on crisis and risk communications, focusing on the special challenges of communicating with key public constituencies during and after high profile acts of crime, violence, disease, and natural disaster.

Currently, much of my effort is focused on the useful role that mass media and culture might play in the event of sudden acts of violence and terrorism, global pandemics, or other catastrophic health episodes. In the fall 2006, I joined a group of experts that examined this issue at Harvard University’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

I also served as Chair of the Board of Advisors of the National Center for Critical Incident Analysis (NCCIA) in Washington, DC, an interdisciplinary group of scholars, media professionals, and government officials examining the public response to high-profile critical incidents. And I have served as a consultant to the research division of NBC News, although not recently.

Along the way, I also held a variety of administrative positions in higher education at Columbia and The City University. Most recently, I was Vice President for Institutional Advancement at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, a position in which I was responsible for media relations, political and government affairs, marketing, development, and public relations.

I currently serve as a member of the Advisory Council of the Dart Center on Journalism and Trauma at the University of Washington, a global network of journalists, journalism educators and health professionals dedicated to improving media coverage of trauma, conflict and tragedy.

I am a frequent contributor of columns and essays to The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune, and the Chicago Tribune.

In March 2005, I was invited to visit Spain as a delegate to The Club of Madrid’s International Summit on Terrorism and Democracy, where I spoke about the challenges faced by democratic institutions during high profile incidents of crime, violence, and human rights violations.

Last summer , in 2007, I was named a German Fulbright Scholar and participated in the Berlin German Studies Seminar.

When not immersed in all of the above, or not watching the press coverage of some catastrophe, I enjoy my family, Indian and Thai food, the Napali coast of Kauai, Norteño music and culture, Paris and Berlin, doc films, 20th century American literature, Weimar culture, the Godfather films, 1960s California “Beach-Rock”, Laura Nyro, and Krzysztof Kieslowski’s epic ten-hour film Dekalog.

And no use being blasé about it: I love teaching and I especially love teaching at Hunter College of The City University of New York.

And I love hearing from readers of Media and Mayhem.