1. All the President's Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. An inspiring tale of uncovering perfidy at the highest levels of government.
2 . The Race Beat by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff. Scintillating survey of the civil rights movement and the coming-of-age press.
3. The Trust by Susan Tifft and Alex Jones. Best book about the best newspaper in America, the New York Times, and the family behind it.
4. Personal History by Katharine Graham. The accidental publisher of the Washington Post grew on the job and brought the newspaper along with her.
5. Hard News by Seth Mnookin. A captivating dissection of how Jayson Blair could rock the New York Times to its very core.
Five great movies about journalism
1. State of Play. 2009. Smart thriller. Accurately depicts state of the news business. Washington Post reporter consulted. Helen Mirren!
2. The Soloist. 2009. Beautifully filmed. True story about Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez and musician Nathanial Ayers.
3. All the President’s Men. 1976. Movie brings book to life and adds the immortal phrase, "Follow the money."
4. Call Northside 777. 1948. True story about skeptical Chicago reporter who exonerates inmate, pre-DNA.
5. The Front Page. 1974. Lemon and Matthau. Hilarious fictional look at the all-too-real 1920s newspaper wars.
Five great books by journalists
1. The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. An insightful page-turner that adroitly explains how 9/11 happened and what it means.
2. The Tenth Parallel by Eliza Griswold. Highly readable primer on the intersection between Christianity and Islam as told through the eyes of everyday people across the globe.
3. Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner. Relies on on-the-record sources to tell the inside story of the preventable failures by the CIA.
4. Top Secret America by Dana Priest and William Arkin. Also uses on-the-record sources to expose the vast, unmonitored, ungoverned and duplicative security industry built in the name of 9/11.
5. The End of Wall Street by Roger Lowenstein. Terrific explainer of how our financial meltdown occurred.
Five great books for grad students
1. What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain. Cogent, research-based advice on how to help students learn, which is why I exist.
2. SPSS Survival Manual by Julie Pallant. Enables the statistically impaired to use SPSS for quantitative social science research. Every grad student needs this book.
3. Mediating the Message: Theories of Influences on Mass Media Content by Pamela Schoemaker and Stephen Reese. Insightful look at the forces that shape the news.
4. Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, edited by Bryant & Oliver. Essays examining how media affect society from an empirical and theoretical perspective.
5. Canonic Texts in Media Research, edited by Katz, et al. Essays dissecting influential early writings about mass media and why they remain relevant.
