Anti-Intellectualism in American Media: Magazines and Higher Education

Academe, Sep/Oct 2004 by Park, David W

Claussen's most significant point is that studies of anti-intellectualism have, to date, too rarely paid attention to issues in the media, and his book helps us see how the problems that face academe are not entirely self-inflicted. As he puts it, his is "one of only a handful of works . . . that could be described as an intellectual history of the U.S. mass media." Claussen makes a strong case that media portrayals matter because they supply and reinforce the logic by which higher education is to be judged.

David Park is assistant professor of communicatio at Luke Forest College.