News Grazers

Politicians and journalists have never been among the most trusted professional classes; in this book, author Richard Forgette posits a "news grazing" explanation of how and why. Forgette, an expert on the U.S. Congress and public policy, draws upon direct experimental research to argue that the diffusion of media outlets and media technologies have resulted in an increasingly fragmented and distracted news audience.

Building on a foundation of news stories, Producing Online News shows students how to use the right tools to get the right information to the right people at the right time. The goal is to become a full-fledged online news producer and transform stories into a complete news experience for an ever more demanding audience. Ryan Thornburg, a journalism trainer who has managed the websites of top news organizations, hones the skills students need to produce stories using multimedia, interactivity and on-demand delivery- online journalism's three pillars. Practical instructions show students not just how to use the tools but also how to make good journalistic choices in applying them. The book works for courses specifically in online journalism or for any journalism course that incorporates multiple platforms.

Amid the hand-wringing over the death of "true journalism" in the Internet Age-the din of bloggers, the echo chamber of Twitter, the predominance of Wikipedia-veteran journalists and media critics Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel have written a pragmatic guide to navigating the twenty-first century media terrain. Yes, old authorities are being dismantled, new ones created, and the very nature of knowledge has changed. But seeking the truth remains the purpose of journalism. How do we discern what is reliable? Blur provides a road map, or more specifically, reveals the craft that has been used in newsrooms by the very best journalists for getting at the truth. In an age when the line between citizen and journalist is becoming increasingly unclear, Blur is a crucial guide for those who want to know what's true.

"De-westernising journalism studies in an intelligent way, this book deserves to be read around the world."---Professor James Curran, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom --

Based on a Romanian case study, this book sheds light on the supply and demand of news and information in the current digital era, dominated by unprecedented dramatic changes. In addition to identifying patterns of journalistic reporting and news consumption, the book offers a thorough approach to how the classic theories in media and communication studies can be reinterpreted in the current attention economy and media abundance paradigm. The research data included in this book provide a snapshot of media consumption patterns and encompass experts’ views and predictions about how media habits and diets might evolve. The book will appeal to students, researchers, and scholars of media and communication studies, political communication, and journalism, as well as practitioners interested in a better understanding of news consumption patterns in a high-choice media environment.

"The authors are familiar with the emerging jargon of media convergence and they define large parts of it well. They have also laboured impressively to gather and define useful examples of journalese …This book is a labour of love that reflects immense care and learning. It makes a helpful contribution to a fledgling field of academia and to uniting the cultures of news and journalism studies." Tim Luckhurst, University of Kent, UK This comprehensive glossary offers clear and insightful definitions of the most significant keywords in news and journalism studies. Ranging from 'above the fold' to 'zinger', and with over 400 terms in between, it covers words associated with newspapers, radio and television news, magazines, photojournalism and internet reporting. Other examples include 'agenda setting', 'libel', 'news values', 'objectivity,' 'scoop' and 'tabloidization'. Written by two of the field's leading scholars, it offers an informed perspective on the key terms. It considers a range of genres, including business, crime, environmental, fashion, lifestyle, investigative, science, sports and war journalism as well as looking at new alternatives such as 'Wikinews' and 'Twitter'. This lively and engaging treatment will provide students, researchers and journalists with a solid grounding in the fast-moving vocabulary of news and journalism studies.

For centuries, democracy and development have steered the imagination of governments, citizens, intelligentsia and policymakers alike. Democracy without free media is a contradiction, while development without democracy is futile. Highlighting the power and significance of contemporary media, this book deconstructs news and news-making on Indian television. In exploring the concepts of ‘sense-making’ and ‘meaning-generation’, it examines how news and the dissemination of information and opinion influence the public sphere, participatory democracy, citizenship and civil society. Providing an original interpretation of the paradigmatic shifts in news content and newsroom practices, this book focuses on changing ownership patterns, increasing ‘entertainmentalization’ of news and the resultant ‘developmental reportage deficit’. At the same time, it confronts the uneasy and critical consequences of commercialization and rising sensationalism in news media. Finally, it discusses the role of Public Service Broadcasting, journalistic ethics, objectivity, and the politics of language and ideology in the media today, pointing to the need for greater diversity of content on the one hand and an emphasis on public interest in media policy-making, on the other. Drawing upon comprehensive empirical data, the democracy–media–development relationship is demonstrated through critical analyses of the media’s coverage of recent news events. This includes exhaustive content examination of news programmes on all major news channels of India, surveys with media experts and news professionals by way of questionnaires, and interviews with the audience to gauge the impact of media content on their understanding of social, political and economic issues. This volume will be especially useful to those in journalism, media and communication studies, as also to students of political science, sociology and economics.

How did the events of September 11, 2001 come to be thought of as 9/11? The Shock of the News is an authoritative account of post-9/11 political and social processes, offering an in-depth analysis of the media coverage of this momentous event. Brian Monahan demonstrates how 9/11 has been transformed into a morality tale centered on patriotism, victimization, and heroes. Introducing the idea of “public drama” as a way of making sense of how media processed and packaged the 9/11 attacks for their audiences, Monahan not only illuminates how and why the coverage took shape as it did, but also provides us with new insights into the social, cultural, and political consequences of the attacks and their aftermath. Monahan explains how and why 9/11 became such a potent symbol, exploring how meanings and symbols get created, reinforced, and disseminated in modern society. Ultimately, Monahan offers an important new understanding of this singular event of our time, and his compelling narrative brings the momentous events back into focus.