Media Criticism

The Bay Area in northern California has a reputation as a liberal haven. This area has communities like San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley that are synonymous with the 1960s counterculture as well as contemporary lefty intellectuals. This stereotype does not take into account the moderating influence of political power, the conservative drift of old hippies throughout the decades as well as the pervasiveness of national cable news. The East Bay Express mixes the progressivism of past generations in northern California with the worldly nature of alternative media.

This weekly newspaper has a circulation of 76,099 each week. East Bay Express has national advertising through the Ruxton Media Group in addition to a well-designed website. The paper is delivered to outlets in Berkeley and Oakland with a large crossover vote into markets like San Francisco with media-savvy residents.

Several regular features in East Bay Express highlight the various demographics in the Bay Area. Chris Thompson’s “Seven Days� is a collection of stories highlighting the good, bad and charismatic leaders that create the Bay Area political mosaic. Robert Gammon has a regular article called “Full Disclosure� that discusses state politics from a Bay Area perspective. Thompson and Gammon are excellent at inserting levity, gravity and other emotions with an “-ity� suffix into issues important to their readers.

The feature story for this week is a look at UC-Berkeley’s rising community of student evangelicals. I loved reading this story because it shows that the term “evangelical� does not need to conjure images of stupid, bigoted white Southerners preaching against gays, welfare and atheism. The bright students at Berkeley eschew the dogmatic liberalism on campus to study the Bible in welcoming environments. This cover story shows that modern churches often reflect the personality of its congregation rather than applying tradition equally upon every individual. This aspect of East Bay Express should be enough to get print and online readers to check their preconceived notions at the door.