The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

1992, 1996, 1998) and NBA Finals MVP six times
(1991-1993, 1996-1998), and led the NBA in steals
three times (1988, 1990, 1993).
Jordan’s extraordinary basketball skills translated
into very lucrative product endorsements. Jordan
endorsed numerous commercial products for big-
name brands, including Nike, Hanes, Wheaties,
Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, and McDonald’s. The Air Jor-
dan shoe line revived Nike’s sneaker sales. These
products netted millions annually in sales and made
Jordan a global advertising figure. He also starred in
the combination live action/animated filmSpace Jam
(1996) as himself.
Jordan left the Washington Wizards in May, 2003,
and became co-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats NBA
team in June, 2006. Owner Robert Johnson granted
him final authority on player personnel decisions.

Impact Jordan, whose athletic leaps and dunks in-
fluenced a generation of NBA players, won four
ESPY Awards for Athlete of the Century, Male Ath-
lete of the 1990’s, Pro Basketball Player of the 1990’s,
and Player of the Decade.

Further Reading
Greene, Bob.Hang Time: Days and Dreams with Mi-
chael Jordan.New York: Doubleday, 1992. Adeptly
captures Jordan’s daily life and innermost
thoughts.
Halberstam, David.Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan
and the World He Made.New York: Random House,

1999. Excellent biographical account of Jordan’s
      epic life.
      Jordan, Michael.Driven from Within. New York: Atria
      Books, 2005.
      .For the Love of the Game: My Stor y. New York:
      Crown, 1998.
      .I’m Back! More Rare Air. New York: Harper-
      Collins, 1995.
      ___.Rare Air: Michael on Michael. New York:
      HarperCollins, 1993. These four autobiographies
      provide colorful anecdotes and photographs
      from Jordan’s illustrious career.
      LaFeber, Walter.Michael Jordan and the New Global
      Capitalism. New York: W. W. Norton, 1999. Shows
      how Jordan’s numerous commercial endorse-
      ments changed the global marketplace.
      Naughton, Jim.Taking to the Air: The Rise of Michael
      Jordan. New York: Warner Books, 1992. An excel-
      lent account of Jordan’s early career.
      Porter, David L.Michael Jordan: A Biography. West-

port, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007. An up-to-

date overview of Jordan’s life.

Smith, Sam.The Jordan Rules. New York: Simon &

Schuster, 1992. A behind-the-scenes critical anal-

ysis.

David L. Porter

See also Advertising; African Americans; Barkley,

Charles; Basketball; Dream Team; Johnson, Magic;

Malone, Karl; Olympic Games of 1992; O’Neal,

Shaquille; Sports.

 Journalism

Definition The gathering and disseminating of

news and information via print, radio,

television, and the Internet

During the 1990’s, the boundaries separating radio, net-

work television, and newspapers began to blur as tradi-

tional journalism began to merge with new technologies

such as cable television and the Internet.

By the 1990’s, consumers of news were no longer

content to passively wait for the evening network

news programs in order to get updated information.

They wanted current news on demand, and that

need was met through the growing popularity of

twenty-four-hour, real-time news coverage on cable

television and the Internet, both of which provided

foreign and national stories hours ahead of the eve-

ning network news programs that originated in New

York. The national news networks faced stiff compe-

tition from a number of news-and-information cable

networks such as the Cable News Network (CNN),

the Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN),

Fox News (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Cor-

poration), and MSNBC, a joint venture by the Na-

tional Broadcasting Company (NBC) and Microsoft.

People also began to get their information from the

Internet, which had become a strong competitor to

traditional news organizations and transformed not

only how news was gathered but also who reported it.

News on the Internet In order to compete effec-

tively with the rapidly growing, interactive commu-

nication technology, the news media rapidly became

involved with the Internet by developing their own

Web sites. In 1994, there were twenty newspapers on-

line. By mid-1999, there were more than four thou-

The Nineties in America Journalism
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