Just a Journalist


Book Description

A Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter who covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times, Linda Greenhouse trains an autobiographical lens on a moment of transition in U.S. journalism. Calling herself “an accidental activist,” she raises urgent questions about the role of journalists as citizens and participants in the world around them.




On All Fronts


Book Description

“On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist beautifully outlines . . . what it means to seek the truth. It gave me a new faith in the power of reporting.” —Oprah Winfrey The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter. In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, she has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range. With her deep empathy, Ward finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts is the riveting account of Ward’s singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism. Following a privileged but lonely childhood, Ward found her calling as an international war correspondent in the aftermath of 9/11. From her early days in the field, she was embedding with marines at the height of the Iraq War and reporting from the center of Israel’s war with Hezbollah. Soon she was soon on assignment all over the globe. From her multiple stints entrenched with Syrian rebels to her deep investigations into the Western extremists who are drawn to ISIS, Ward covered Bashar al-Assad’s reign of terror without fear and with courage and compassion. In 2018, Ward rose to new heights at CNN and became a mother. Suddenly, she was doing this hardest of jobs with a whole new perspective. On All Fronts is the unforgettable story of one extraordinary journalist—and of a changing world.




The Solo Video Journalist


Book Description

It is becoming increasingly important for television reporters to be proficient in many, if not all, of the steps in production. The Solo Video Journalist will make handling all these responsibilities seem possible, and do so from the hands-on perspective of a current reporter with years of experience as a multimedia journalist. This book will cover all aspects of multimedia journalism, from planning for a segment, to dressing appropriately for one’s multiple roles, to conducting interviews and editing. The instruction and guidance in this text will help make readers valuable players in their field, and it is filled with real-world examples and advice from current professionals. Whether it be college students learning from the ground up or journalists early in their careers, The Solo Video Journalist ensures they will have all the materials they need to be successful multimedia journalists.




Little Girl Lost


Book Description

Shedding painful light on a brutal crime, the author explores the neglectful and abusive circumstances that brought young Shirley Katherine Wolf and Cindy Lee Collier to the edge and resulted in their stabbing murder of eighty-five-year-old Anna Brackett. Reissue.




Reporter


Book Description

"Reporter is just wonderful. Truly a great life, and what shines out of the book, amid the low cunning and tireless legwork, is Hersh's warmth and humanity. This book is essential reading for every journalist and aspiring journalist the world over." —John le Carré From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author and preeminent investigative journalist of our time—a heartfelt, hugely revealing memoir of a decades-long career breaking some of the most impactful stories of the last half-century, from Washington to Vietnam to the Middle East. Seymour Hersh's fearless reporting has earned him fame, front-page bylines in virtually every major newspaper in the free world, honors galore, and no small amount of controversy. Now in this memoir he describes what drove him and how he worked as an independent outsider, even at the nation's most prestigious publications. He tells the stories behind the stories—riveting in their own right—as he chases leads, cultivates sources, and grapples with the weight of what he uncovers, daring to challenge official narratives handed down from the powers that be. In telling these stories, Hersh divulges previously unreported information about some of his biggest scoops, including the My Lai massacre and the horrors at Abu Ghraib. There are also illuminating recollections of some of the giants of American politics and journalism: Ben Bradlee, A. M. Rosenthal, David Remnick, and Henry Kissinger among them. This is essential reading on the power of the printed word at a time when good journalism is under fire as never before.




Engaged Journalism


Book Description

Engaged Journalism explores the changing relationship between news producers and audiences and the methods journalists can use to secure the attention of news consumers. Based on Jake Batsell's extensive experience and interaction with more than twenty innovative newsrooms, this book shows that, even as news organizations are losing their agenda-setting power, journalists can still thrive by connecting with audiences through online technology and personal interaction. Batsell conducts interviews with and observes more than two dozen traditional and startup newsrooms across the United States and the United Kingdom. Traveling to Seattle, London, New York City, and Kalamazoo, Michigan, among other locales, he attends newsroom meetings, combs through internal documents, and talks with loyal readers and online users to document the successes and failures of the industry's experiments with paywalls, subscriptions, nonprofit news, live events, and digital tools including social media, data-driven interactives, news games, and comment forums. He ultimately concludes that, for news providers to survive, they must constantly listen to, interact with, and fulfill the specific needs of their audiences, whose attention can no longer be taken for granted. Toward that end, Batsell proposes a set of best practices based on effective, sustainable journalistic engagement.




We're Not Broken


Book Description

"This book is a message from autistic people to their parents, friends, teachers, coworkers and doctors showing what life is like on the spectrum. It's also my love letter to autistic people. For too long, we have been forced to navigate a world where all the road signs are written in another language." With a reporter's eye and an insider's perspective, Eric Garcia shows what it's like to be autistic across America. Garcia began writing about autism because he was frustrated by the media's coverage of it; the myths that the disorder is caused by vaccines, the narrow portrayals of autistic people as white men working in Silicon Valley. His own life as an autistic person didn't look anything like that. He is Latino, a graduate of the University of North Carolina, and works as a journalist covering politics in Washington D.C. Garcia realized he needed to put into writing what so many autistic people have been saying for years; autism is a part of their identity, they don't need to be fixed. In We're Not Broken, Garcia uses his own life as a springboard to discuss the social and policy gaps that exist in supporting those on the spectrum. From education to healthcare, he explores how autistic people wrestle with systems that were not built with them in mind. At the same time, he shares the experiences of all types of autistic people, from those with higher support needs, to autistic people of color, to those in the LGBTQ community. In doing so, Garcia gives his community a platform to articulate their own needs, rather than having others speak for them, which has been the standard for far too long.




Tell Them I Didn't Cry


Book Description

A young journalist from the Midwest describes her sojourn in Iraq as the Baghdad Bureau Chief for the "Washington Post," detailing what it is like to cover a war under the constant threat of kidnapping, injury, and death.




Anchored


Book Description

HONORED AS A NOTABLE 100 BOOK IN THE 2021 SHELF UNBOUND BEST INDIE BOOK COMPETITION Mort Crim has reported on major conflicts around the world for more than four decades and was a major inspiration for Will Ferrell's performance in the movie Anchorman. Crim's memoir takes readers behind the camera to show what life was like when the local anchorman was as revered as the professional athlete, and just as overpaid. It was a glamorous life, working alongside some of journalism's legends, like Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Dan Rather, and Ted Koppel. The son of an evangelical minister in a conservative church, Crim suffered his first crisis of faith at the age of 15. Despite nagging questions, Crim eventually followed his father's path into ministry. But the more he delved into the Bible, the more his faith was shaken. Unable to defend things he wasn't sure of from the pulpit, Crim left the ministry for a career in journalism, determined to pursue truth. After a four-year stint in the Air Force, he earned his master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and by the age of 30, had made it to New York—the epicenter of his profession. As a national correspondent for ABC, Crim anchored the network's top-rated morning radio show and covered America's newly-developing manned space program. When Neil Armstrong took that first step on the moon, it was Crim's voice that described the historic event for millions around the world. At the urging of Walter Cronkite, Crim moved from network radio into the heady world of television news. At KYW in Philadelphia, Mort Crim was paired with the late Jessica Savitch, and their anchor team spawned the idea for Will Ferrell's Anchorman movies. Crim's journey for truth will resonate with anyone raised in a cocoon of certainty that they felt compelled to question.




The View from Somewhere


Book Description

A look at the history of the idea of the objective journalist and how this very ideal can often be used to undercut itself. In The View from Somewhere, Lewis Raven Wallace dives deep into the history of “objectivity” in journalism and how its been used to gatekeep and silence marginalized writers as far back as Ida B. Wells. At its core, this is a book about fierce journalists who have pursued truth and transparency and sometimes been punished for it—not just by tyrannical governments but by journalistic institutions themselves. He highlights the stories of journalists who question “objectivity” with sensitivity and passion: Desmond Cole of the Toronto Star; New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse; Pulitzer Prize-winner Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah; Peabody-winning podcaster John Biewen; Guardian correspondent Gary Younge; former Buzzfeed reporter Meredith Talusan; and many others. Wallace also shares his own experiences as a midwestern transgender journalist and activist who was fired from his job as a national reporter for public radio for speaking out against “objectivity” in coverage of Trump and white supremacy. With insightful steps through history, Wallace stresses that journalists have never been mere passive observers. Using historical and contemporary examples—from lynching in the nineteenth century to transgender issues in the twenty-first—Wallace offers a definitive critique of “objectivity” as a catchall for accurate journalism. He calls for the dismissal of this damaging mythology in order to confront the realities of institutional power, racism, and other forms of oppression and exploitation in the news industry. The View from Somewhere is a compelling rallying cry against journalist neutrality and for the validity of news told from distinctly subjective voices.