This project is a mixed media collage that examines local news media coverage of the
neighborhoods lining Main Street in Columbia, SC. The 10’x5’ collage contains six
years worth of headlines from The State newspaper, gathered using search terms that
included “Main Street,” “North Main” and the names of the neighborhoods edging Main
Street. Every headline -- good, bad or innocuous -- was then color-coded and placed
in the general vicinity of the events covered in the story creating a headline map
of Columbia. The map is oriented so that Main Street travels horizontally across the
piece, narrating a news-driven “tale of Two Cities.”
Created by Mary Brebner in 2018. “My hope was to maintain journalistic integrity in
my research, but to infuse a sense of place in the project, thereby echoing the visceral
impact of the news on neighborhoods. News and maps aim to be objective, but our response
to them is not. In this way, I hope that The Power of Words affects conversation beyond headlines and leads us all to consider whether bias influences
journalism’s ‘search for truth,’ the effects of widely-reported crime in neighborhoods,
and how development drives economic change.”
LEGEND
Green = development
Dark yellow = events
Blue = politics
Red = crime
Black = news
Mary Brebner is an educator, writer, journalist and graphic designer who uses her skills to engage journalism students int eh active pursuit of balanced stories that affect them and their community. A member of the Journalism Education Association and South Carolina Student Press Association, she holds a Master’s Degree in Divergent Learning, advises multiple publications, and teaches high school creative writing. She created this work as a Two Cities Fellow with the Indie Grits Lab (www.indiegrits.org) in Columbia.
Piece is a donation from Christopher Church, Ken Gaines, and Josh Gupta-Kagan to the Law School in honor of the work of the law school clinics and their students.
Located in the Clinics, Wrenzie and Tom Rice Student Workroom 364.