Political History Of Journalism

Geraldine Muhlmann traces the history of modern journalism from the 'revolution' of the late 19th century, with its new concern for 'facts', and the rise of the reporter, through to 2007.

Media Nation brings together some of the most exciting voices in media and political history to present fresh perspectives on the role of mass media in the evolution of modern American politics. Together, these contributors offer a field-shaping work that aims to bring the media back to the center of scholarship modern American history.

In Partisan Journalism, Kuypers guides readers on a journey through American journalistic history, focusing on the warring notions of objectivity and partisanship.

Media Nation brings together some of the most exciting voices in media and political history to present fresh perspectives on the role of mass media in the evolution of modern American politics. Together, these contributors offer a field-shaping work that aims to bring the media back to the center of scholarship modern American history.

Comparing Political Journalism is a systematic, in-depth study of the factors that shape and influence political news coverage today. Using techniques drawn from the growing field of comparative political communication, an international group of contributors analyse political news content drawn from newspapers, television news, and news websites from 16 countries, to assess what kinds of media systems are most conducive to producing quality journalism. Underpinned by key conceptual themes, such as the role that the media are expected to play in democracies and quality of coverage, this analysis highlights the fragile balance of news performance in relation to economic forces. A multitude of causal factors are explored to explain key features of contemporary political news coverage, such as Strategy and Game Framing, Negativity, Political Balance, Personalization, Hard and Soft News Comparing Political Journalism offers an unparalleled scope in assessing the implications for the ongoing transformation of Western media systems, and addresses core concepts of central importance to students and scholars of political communication world-wide.

Traditional news values no longer hold: infotainment has the day. Journalism is in a terminal state of decline. Or so some contemporary commentators would argue. Although there has been a great diversity in format and ownership over time, Conboy demonstrates the surprising continuity of concerns in the history of journalism. Questions of political influence, the impact of advertising, the sensationalisation of news coverage, the ′dumbing down′ of the press, the economic motives of newspaper owners - these are themes that emerge repeatedly over time and again today. In this book, Martin Conboy provides a history of the development of newspapers, periodicals and broadcast journalism which · enables readers to engage critically with contemporary issues within the news media · outlines the connections, as well as the distinctions, across historical periods · spans the introduction of printed news to the arrival of the ′new′ news media · demonstrates how journalism has always been informed by a cultural practices broader and more dynamic than the simple provision of news By situating journalism in its historical context, this book enables students to more fully understand the wide range of practices which constitute contemporary journalism. As such it will be an essential text for students of journalism and the media.

From the opening decades of the republic when political parties sponsored newspapers to current governmental practices that actively subsidize the collection and dissemination of the news, the press and the government have been far from independent. Unlike those earlier days, however, the news is no longer produced by a diverse range of individual outlets but is instead the result of a collective institution that exercises collective power. In explaining how the news media of today operate as an intermediary political institution, akin to the party system and interest group system, Cook demonstrates how the differing media strategies used by governmental agencies and branches respond to the constitutional and structural weaknesses inherent in a separation-of-powers system. Cook examines the news media's capacity to perform the political tasks that they have inherited and points the way to a debate on policy solutions in order to hold the news media accountable without treading upon the freedom of the press.

Early in the 19th century the work of American newspaper journalists was intertwined with the work of politicians. Journalists were primarily printers and editors, and newspapers were largely political organs, funded and used by politicians for political reasons. As the 19th century progressed, not only journalists, but politicians, were involved in newspaper work. Dooley explores the transformation of journalism, examining how journalists established occupational boundaries separating their work from that of politicians. She focuses on how an occupational group that had been inseparable from party politics early in the 19th century grew to be seen by many in society as more distant and independent from parties by the end of the century and became accepted as the citizenry's primary provider of political news and editorial opinion. This study of how journalists established occupational boundaries will be of interest to scholars and researchers of journalism history, political communication, and the sociology of work.