Gary Younge

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Gary Younge

Gary Younge is an author, editor-at-large at The Guardian, columnist at The Nation, and author of several books, most recently Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives.

Content of Writing

Coverage of U.S. Presidential Elections

Younge America: the View from Roanoak

Immediately preceding the 2008 presidential election between Barack Obama and John McCain, Younge spent a month in Roanoak, Virginia. He wanted to visit "a relatively small town in a swing state which, given the historic nature of Barack Obama's candidacy, has a sizeable African-American population... where both sides had work to do if they were to shore up their base, and there was everything to play for."[1]

In his introductory piece about his travel to Roanoak, Younge explained his wish to visit a swing-state rather than staying somewhere such as New York, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. According to him, "the political conversations that take place [in the U.S.'s cosmopolitan coastal cities] are far less diverse and varied than elsewhere in the country. [These cities' residents] refer to the rest of the country as the fly-over states- the inconvenient electoral truth in between New York and Los Angeles- deriding them for their obsession with guns, god and gays."[1]

Throughout his stay in Roanoak, Younge visited a Presbyterian community center,[2] discussed healthcare, high rates of uninsured Americans, and medical bankruptcies,[3] met with leaders of Roanoak's black community,[4] and marveled at the "eccentric" residents of the town.[5]

During his stay, he met "a man dressed as a Viking. His beard was plaited and he had an Obama sticker on his helmet. He said the woman with him was not his girlfriend, she just made his mead. It's not that people didn't notice, but the fact he was dressed as a Viking didn't seem to come up in any conversation. When I brought it up it was like I was the strange one."[5] Among other residents, Younge also came across an "Obama supporter who wouldn't hear a bad word said about the confederate general Robert E Lee" and a "Nader voter who brandished a gun in my direction.[5]

The View from Middletown

In 2016, Younge repeated his month-long study of an American town before a presidential election, this time in Muncie, Indiana. Younge chose this town because it lies within Delaware County, which voted for both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the primaries and also because it is the home of an influential sociological study of American life called "Middletown".[6] Additionally, although Indiana is a reliably red state, Delaware county voted twice for both George W. Bush and Barack Obama.[7] In Muncie, Younge set out to "visit the food banks, gun ranges, churches and gay bars to talk to its teachers, preachers, cops and kids. To find out not just how people will vote but what they are thinking, and not just who will win but what, if anything, might change."[7]

Younge commented on Indiana's fraught racial past during the time of the Middletown study, noting how "the experiences of people like Johnson [an African-American pastor who risked his life to give lynching victims a proper burial] and many of those who stood with him that day, are omitted from the “typical” American story of Middletown.[8]

Among other issues, Young interviewed progressive Bernie Sanders supporters who did not show the same enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton,[9] presented a photo essay of abandoned factories,[10] discussed Trump's appeal,[11], looked into the issue of gender in politics,[12] and assembled testimonials from a wide variety of locals.[13]

Younge's reporting also mentioned the Charles Koch Foundation's large grant to Ball State University, which is in Muncie. For more information on this subject, visit Koch and Ball State University.

Award-Winning Radio Documentary on Same-Sex Marriage

In 2015, Younge traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, where same-sex marriage was banned at the time. There, Younge talked to Christian Kentuckians on both sides of the issue. His interviews included a Catholic gay couple who married in nearby Indiana, Baptist parents of a gay son who struggled to square their Christian beliefs and their love and support for him, ministers, a theologian, and members of a Baptist Church who performed same-sex marriage against the wishes of the Baptist establishments.[14]

"Objections at the Wedding" won the Radio Times Faith Award for religious broadcasting in 2016.[15]

Education and Career

In 2015, Younge became an editor-at-large for the Guardian.[16][17]

Since 2006, Younge has authored The Nation's "Beneath the Radar" column.[18]

In 2003, Younge became the Guardian's U.S. correspondent and reported from New York and Chicago before returning to London in 2015.[16][19]

Younge attended Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, where he studied French and Russian. During his final year of university, he was awarded a bursary from The Guardian, where he began work in 1993.[16]

Younge is an Albert Knobler Fellow at Type Media Center (formerly The Nation Institute).[20]

Books

Awards

2018

  • (Broadsheet) Feature Writer of the year at the Society of Editors Press Awards[21]
  • Amnesty Media Awards [22]

2017

  • James Aronson Career Achievement Award[23]

2016

2015

  • Foreign Commentator of the Year by The Comment Awards[24]
  • Harvard University Shorenstein Center's David Nyhan Prize[26]

2009

  • City University of London's British James Cameron Award[27]

2001 to 2003

  • Best Newspaper Journalist in Britain’s Ethnic Minority Media Awards[16]

Selected Works

Contact and Social Media

Website: www.garyyounge.com
Web contact form: Contact
Twitter: @garyyounge
Facebook: /gary.younge.9

External Links

Related SourceWatch

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Gary Younge, "Why Roanoke?", Guardian, September 29, 2008, accessed November 25, 2019.
  2. ↑ Gary Younge, "The queues for free bread are getting longer", Guardian, October 10, 2008, accessed November 25, 2019.
  3. ↑ Gary Younge, "Who wants to be a Carilionaire", Guardian, October 21, 2008, accessed November 25, 2019.
  4. ↑ Gary Younge, Looking back at US election 2008: Racial landscapes, The Guardian YouTube channel, December 3, 2008, accessed November 25, 2019.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Gary Younge, "Thank you and goodbye", Guardian, October 24, 2008, accessed November 25, 2019.
  6. ↑ Gary Younge, "The view from Middletown: Why are we covering this story?", Guardian, October 11, 2016, accessed November 25, 2019.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Gary Younge, "The view from Middletown: join Gary Younge for a unique look at the US election", Guardian, October 11, 2016, accessed November 25, 2019.
  8. ↑ Gary Younge, "The view from Middletown: a typical US city that never did exist", Guardian, October 18, 2016, accessed November 25, 2019.
  9. ↑ Gary Younge, "The view from Middletown: For Bernie Sanders supporters, a vote for Clinton does not come easy", Guardian, October 20, 2016, accessed November 25, 2019.
  10. ↑ Gary Younge, "The view from Middletown: Muncie's forgotten factories- a photo essay", Guardian, October 25, 2016, accessed November 25, 2019.
  11. ↑ Gary Younge, "The view from Middletown: 'Trump speaks to us in a way other people don’t'", Guardian, October 27, 2016, accessed November 25, 2019.
  12. ↑ Gary Younge, "The view from Middletown: 'The perfect female presidential candidate doesn't exist'", Guardian, November 1, 2016, accessed November 25, 2019.
  13. ↑ Gary Younge, "'Whoever wins the US election needs to address the rage out there': the view from Middletown", Guardian, November 3, 2016, accessed November 25, 2019.
  14. ↑ Gary Younge, '"Heart and Soul": Objections at the Wedding', BBC, June 19, 2015, accessed November 25, 2019.
  15. ↑ Radio Times, "Call the Midwife picks up Radio Times Faith Award for religious broadcasting", organizational website, June 9, 2016, accessed November 25, 2019.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Gary Younge About, personal website, accessed August 30, 2019.
  17. ↑ Guardian Gary Younge, organizational website, accessed August 30, 2019.
  18. ↑ Nation Beneath the Radar, organizational website, accessed August 30, 2019.
  19. ↑ Gary Younge Across the great divide, Guardian, May 19, 2006, accessed August 30, 2019.
  20. ↑ Type Media Center, Gary Younge, organizational website, accessed November 25, 2019.
  21. ↑ Admin Financial Times crowned Newspaper of the Year at National Press Awards for 2017, "Society of Editors", accessed August 30, 2019.
  22. ↑ Amnesty International UK Previous Winners, organizational website, accessed August 30, 2019.
  23. ↑ Aronson Awards 2017, organizational website, accessed August 30, 2019.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Comment Awards Previous Winners 2009-2017, organizational website, accessed August 30, 2019.
  25. ↑ Sandford St Martin Trust Awards Archive, organizational website, accessed August 30, 2019.
  26. ↑ Shorenstein Center David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism, organizational website, accessed August 30, 2019.
  27. ↑ City University of London Award Winners, organizational website, accessed August 30, 2019.
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