Sid Bedingfield

My work focuses on journalism and its influence on political and cultural change across time.

My first book – "Newspaper Wars: Civil Rights and White Resistance in South Carolina, 1935-1965" – argues that the black and white press played a larger role in the transformation of Deep South politics in the mid-twentieth century than had been previously assumed. I am co-editing and contributing to a second book, "Journalism & Jim Crow: The Making of White Supremacy in the New South," which is scheduled for publication next fall.

My interest in political journalism grew out of personal experience. I spent more than two decades as a professional journalist covering political contests in the United States and abroad. During that time, I came to realize that journalists and their publics increasingly disagreed about the role journalism has played – and should play – in civic life. As a historian and a media researcher, I hope to engage in the scholarly conversation about an issue that is central to a democratic society.