True Stories


Book Description

Journalism in the twentieth century was marked by the rise of literary journalism. Sims traces more than a century of its history, examining the cultural connections, competing journalistic schools of thought, and innovative writers that have given literary journalism its power. Seminal exmples of the genre provide ample context and background for the study of this style of journalism.




Literary Journalism in the Twentieth Century


Book Description

This wide-ranging collection of critical essays on literary journalism addresses the shifting border between fiction and non-fiction, literature and journalism. Literary Journalism in the Twentieth Century addresses general and historical issues, explores questions of authorial intent and the status of the territory between literature and journalism, and offers a case study of Mary McCarthy’s 1953 piece, "Artists in Uniform," a classic of literary journalism. Sims offers a thought-provoking study of the nature of perception and the truth, as well as issues facing journalism today.




Information Age Journalism


Book Description

For almost four hundred years journalism has played a central role in the evolution and development of societies across the globe. But in the 21st century and the age of information, exactly what journalism is, what it does, and what it means has become increasingly problematic. Understanding journalism today requires awareness of concepts and practices around the world, rather than just Western notions of journalism's social role. Information Age Journalism examines fundamental questions about what journalism in the age of information means in an international context. The book is both an introduction for students and a critical examination of the dominant theories in journalism studies. The book includes: - An exploration and discussion of the contemporary 'crisis' in Western journalism. - An examination of core concepts in journalism studies, like new values, objectivity and ethics, drawing on comparative examples from around the world. - An exploration of the impact of the new media technologies on established theories and practices in journalism. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of Journalism and Media Studies.







The 21st Century Journalism Handbook


Book Description

Set against the background of the fundamental issues facing the industry today, The 21st Century Journalism Handbook is a comprehensive guide to the core principles and practices essential to the modern journalist. Convergence, online, the growth of magazine formats, challenges presented by technology and new demands in news and feature writing are all covered from conceptual and practical perspectives. A thorough grounding in the key debates and techniques is provided; while clear, no-nonsense practical advice helps you develop your journalism skills and make a success of your studies and career. Key Features: A combination of professional insight, academic study and practical exercises allows you to develop at your own pace Thinking it through activities at the end of each chapter allow you to think over the topics discussed and to think about how you could apply these skills Case studies and Closer Look boxes explore real-life examples in more depth Key points to remember and chapter summaries highlight the essential things you need to know Comprehensive but digestible coverage of the key elements of ethics, regulation and law ensures you are fully equipped with the essential frameworks for informed practice With an emphasis on developing the ‘whole journalist’, a creative and visual reporter who can think across different platforms, this text is ideal for all for journalism students training in newspapers, magazines and online reporting.




Journalism at the End of the American Century, 1965-Present


Book Description

McPherson captures the best and worst aspects of American journalism since 1965. The press has evolved into a conglomeration of entities, that today can be described as pervasive, entertaining, and justifiably mistrusted. In some ways, today's press offers the best journalism Americans have ever seen. In other ways, the modern news media fall short of the ideals held by most of those who care about journalism, and far short of the promise they once seemed to offer in terms of helping create an enlightened democracy. Neither a paean to the press nor an exercise in media bashing, this book finds much to criticize and to praise about recent American journalism, while illustrating that traditional journalistic values have diminished in importance — not just for many of those who control the media, but also for the media consumers who most need good journalism. Chapters are devoted to various themes that include social unrest, the influence of entertainment values, technological shifts, media consolidation and corporatization, issues of content versus context, new kinds of news media, and why the 1970s may have been the high point of American journalism. Events and issues given extra attention include the rise of television news (and later CNN), the Civil Rights Movement and other race-related issues, the Women's Movement, various forms of alternative journalism, wars in Vietnam and Iraq, investigative journalism, the World Trade Center attacks, the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns and elections, civic journalism, and journalism scandals.




Beyond News


Book Description

For a century and a half, journalists made a good business out of selling the latest news or selling ads next to that news. Now that news pours out of the Internet and our mobile devices—fast, abundant, and mostly free—that era is ending. Our best journalists, Mitchell Stephens argues, instead must offer original, challenging perspectives—not just slightly more thorough accounts of widely reported events. His book proposes a new standard: “wisdom journalism,” an amalgam of the more rarified forms of reporting—exclusive, enterprising, investigative—and informed, insightful, interpretive, explanatory, even opinionated takes on current events. This book features an original, sometimes critical examination of contemporary journalism, both on- and offline. And it finds inspiration for a more ambitious and effective understanding of journalism in examples from twenty-first-century articles and blogs, as well as in a selection of outstanding twentieth-century journalism and Benjamin Franklin’s eighteenth-century writings. Most attempts to deal with journalism’s current crisis emphasize technology. This book emphasizes mindsets and the need to rethink what journalism has been and might become.




The Global Journalist in the 21st Century


Book Description

The Global Journalist in the 21st Century systematically assesses the demographics, education, socialization, professional attitudes and working conditions of journalists in various countries around the world. This book updates the original Global Journalist (1998) volume with new data, adding more than a dozen countries, and provides material on comparative research about journalists that will be useful to those interested in doing their own studies. The editors put together this collection working under the assumption that journalists’ backgrounds, working conditions and ideas are related to what is reported (and how it is covered) in the various news media round the world, in spite of societal and organizational constraints, and that this news coverage matters in terms of world public opinion and policies. Outstanding features include: Coverage of 33 nations located around the globe, based on recent surveys conducted among representative samples of local journalists Comprehensive analyses by well-known media scholars from each country A section on comparative studies of journalists An appendix with a collection of survey questions used in various nations to question journalists As the most comprehensive and reliable source on journalists around the world, The Global Journalist will serve as the primary source for evaluating the state of journalism. As such, it promises to become a standard reference among journalism, media, and communication students and researchers around the world.




Advanced Reporting


Book Description

News gathering is a large, complicated and often messy task that has traditionally been viewed by journalists as irretrievably idiosyncratic, best learned through trial and error. Advanced Reporting takes the opposite approach, focusing on reporting as a process of triangulation based on three essential activities: analyzing documents, making observations and conducting interviews. In this readable book, veteran journalism professor Miles Maguire shows how the best reporters use these three tools in a way that allows them to cross-check and authenticate facts, to reduce or eliminate unsupportable allegations and to take readers and viewers to a deeper level of insight and understanding. This book will help to prepare students for a profession marked by increasing complexity and competition. To succeed in this environment, journalists must learn to make the most of digital media to intensify the impact of their work. At the same time, reporters must contend with a host of sophisticated public relations techniques while engaging with news audiences that no longer just consume journalism, but also collaborate in its creation. Discussion questions and exercises help students put theory into practice.




The Invention of News


Book Description

DIVLong before the invention of printing, let alone the availability of a daily newspaper, people desired to be informed. In the pre-industrial era news was gathered and shared through conversation and gossip, civic ceremony, celebration, sermons, and proclamations. The age of print brought pamphlets, edicts, ballads, journals, and the first news-sheets, expanding the news community from local to worldwide. This groundbreaking book tracks the history of news in ten countries over the course of four centuries. It evaluates the unexpected variety of ways in which information was transmitted in the premodern world as well as the impact of expanding news media on contemporary events and the lives of an ever-more-informed public. Andrew Pettegree investigates who controlled the news and who reported it; the use of news as a tool of political protest and religious reform; issues of privacy and titillation; the persistent need for news to be current and journalists trustworthy; and people’s changed sense of themselves as they experienced newly opened windows on the world. By the close of the eighteenth century, Pettegree concludes, transmission of news had become so efficient and widespread that European citizens—now aware of wars, revolutions, crime, disasters, scandals, and other events—were poised to emerge as actors in the great events unfolding around them./div