Guns, an American Conversation, The Editors at Spaceship Media
Guns, an American Conversation, The Editors at Spaceship Media
List: $14.99 | Sale: $10.50
Club: $7.49

Guns, an American Conversation
How to Bridge Political Divides

Author: The Editors at Spaceship Media

Narrator: Nicole Lewis

Unabridged: 3 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/13/2020


Synopsis

From Pulitzer Prize–winning reporters: Can complete strangers representing every point along the political divide engage in civil and productive discourse on the topic of gun control?

As Americans, we spend a lot of time talking about guns. With the political division in the country, evidenced by the Capitol insurrection and voter fraud protests, it’s not surprising that we rarely have real conversations with people whose ideas don’t align with ours about gun ownership. Democrats and liberals usually talk with other Democrats and liberals, not Republicans and conservatives.

That is, perhaps, why the country is so divided when it comes to reducing gun violence.

Guns, an American Conversation features the results of a fascinating nationwide conversation about guns. A group of 150 strangers were brought together in a month-long moderated Facebook group chat. They featured teachers, Second Amendment advocates, hunters, police officers, and mothers and fathers from across the political spectrum and the fifty states.

Together, they participated in a project meant to foster civil, yet honest, dialogue between people whose backgrounds and beliefs led them to have opposing views on the issue of gun control.

Guns attempts to map out common territory in a nation driven by profound divides. It includes real information about gun laws in the United States, providing the reader with tools to continue the discussion in their own lives. With sidebars, charts, and graphics that are clear and easy to navigate, Guns might not change your mind about gun control, but it will help you learn to cross divides in conversation as America navigates the way forward on this difficult issue.

About The Editors at Spaceship Media

Spaceship Media was launched after the 2016 election with a mission to reduce polarization, build communities, and restore trust in journalism. It has quickly become a leader in engaging communities around difficult issues and supporting civil, fact-based conversations. Spaceship Media’s Dialogue Journalism method reconceptualizes the information and reporting process and puts the divided communities Spaceship and their journalistic partners serve at the heart of their practice. Spaceship has conceptualized and created conversations about such polarizing issues as immigration, income disparity, gun safety, race, education, and national politics. With their approach to moderating difficult conversations and their style of reporting directly for communities they have built a track record of success. Spaceship Media’s collaborators include Advance Local, Time, Essential Partners, Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media, Univision, The Seattle Times, Bay Area News Group, and Southern California News Group.


Reviews

4 stars. I wish this contained more actual quotes from the Facebook Group where these discussions actually occurred, but the selected passages were still sufficient to get me thinking about lots of different perspectives. I consider myself to be quite middle-of-the-road when it comes to gun rights, b......more

Goodreads review by Diane

Spaceship Media was spot on with how they handled a conversation with participants on both sides of the gun debate via a closed Facebook page. They were able to get people to come together to express their opinions and views without recrimination and hatred. The moderators did a great job of keeping......more

Goodreads review by Mark

This book has 3 components 1) Provides a comprehensive discussion on the political conversation involving guns. This is a lot more nuanced than your typical talking-heads debate 2) A how-to for journalists on creating a project that will be both interesting and impactful. If you're a journalist, you c......more

Goodreads review by Crystal

The book is about a literal conversation between people with opposing views on guns that takes book in a closed Facebook group moderated by Spaceship Media. The conversation introduces you some of the thinking in the guns conversation, associated groups, and tactics in how to keep the conversation o......more