Which Way, L.A.?

High Speed Media and Mayan Murals

Todd Gitlin tried to write books and articles about happy-talk news, corporate mergers, celebrity culture and other aspects of a world saturated with media until he realized he was missing the forest for the trees. The result is a new book, Media Unlimited: How the Torrent of Images and Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives. Gitlin is a professor of culture, journalism and sociology at New York University. The modern-day Marshall McLuhan shares his thoughts on coping with all those media, which we might not want to live with, but just can-t seem to live without. Newsmaker: Trial of Dog Mauling Death in Hands of the Jury Jury deliberations have begun in the trial of San Francisco-s dog-mauling death. Marjorie Knoller is charged with second-degree murder, husband Robert Noel with involuntary manslaughter, after their two 120-pound dogs killed their neighbor, Dianne Whipple. Jaxon Van Derbeken, who-s been covering the trial for the San Francisco Chronicle since it was moved to Los Angeles, has an update on the highly charged case. Reporter-s Notebook: Earliest Maya Wall Painting Found in Guatemala An exhausted archeologist searching for shade near an ancient pyramid in Guatemala turned his flashlight on a tunnel dug by looters and discovered a master work from an ancient civilization. William Saturno, of Harvard-s Peabody Museum, will spend the next 5 years on a grant from the National Geographic Society, studying his discovery and the Mayans responsible for it.