About this item
With sensational headlines and scandalous photos, supermarket tabloids dish out the dirt on everyone and everything from space aliens and Bat Boy to Elvis and Britney. Although they were once the pariah of traditional journalism, tabloids have gained credibility in recent years and today their lurid style - and sometimes their reportage - is even imitated by mainstream news outlets. In "Tabloid Valley", Paula Morton explores the cultural impact of the sensationalist press over the years, focusing on Generoso Pope Jr.'s decision in 1971 to move the editorial offices of the National Enquirer from New Jersey to Florida. This bold step initiated a mass exodus of similar publications to the Sunshine State where six of the largest circulation weeklies - the "Star", the "Globe", the "Weekly World News", the "Sun", the "National Examiner", and the "Enquirer" - were eventually consolidated under a single owner, American Media, Inc.
About the Author
"Before I was an author, I was a farmer in York County, Pennsylvania." Paula Morton, a journalist and author of narrative nonfiction, and her husband owned Boar-Mor Farms, the farrowing and nursery component of swine production where over four hundred sows produced nine thousand piglets per year. Two miles from the commercial farm was the home farm, and there they designed and built their house, raised two daughters, and nurtured gardens, pets and barnyard animals. Twenty years later they sold the farm and headed west. "I arrived at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, across the border from Mexico, to study horticulture; I left to write about chile peppers, border crossings and Mexican fiestas. The environment, the culture, the political complexities were so intriguing that I simply had to write about my new world." For her first book--Tabloid Valley: Supermarket News and American Culture(University Press of Florida, 2009)--Morton spent two years interviewing reporters, editors, publishers, and fans to find out how the tabloids work, where the reporters get their stories, and how the tabloids have changed American journalism. "Paula got it right," said a former National Enquirer reporter. "She dug and dug." In her second book--Tortillas: A Cultural History (University of New Mexico Press, September 2014)--Morton tells the story of the tortilla, an unleavened flatbread made from either corn or wheat. "Several years ago I worked one day as a temp employee in an immigrant neighborhood tortilleria, bordered to the south by Mexico; to the east, Texas. The most I knew about tortillas is that they tasted good from a taco truck in New York City, and best at the borderlands, handmade and warm off the griddle." Who made the first tortilla? Where did they come from? This book - the first to extensively present the tortilla's history, symbolism, and impact- is the history of the tortilla from its roots in ancient Mesoamerica to the cross-cultural global tortilla. Contact her at www.paulamorton.com
