Books
- Reporting for the Media
- The Politics of Publishing in South Africa
- The Insider's Guide to the Book Publishing Industry (Mass Communications Book Series)
- The Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book
- Journalism Today
- Self Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book
- Getting Your Book Published
- Wordsworth's Profession: Form, Class and the Logic of Early Romantic Cultural Production
- Marshall McLuhan: Unbound - A Publishing Adventure: v. 1
- The Editor: Steps to Saving a Dying Newspaper Industry
- Fishing by Obstinate Isles: Modern and Postmodern British Poetry and American Readers (Avant-Garde & Modernism Studies)
- Mike Oliver's Acapulco
- Getting Published and Getting Read in South Africa: A Handbook for Writers of Scholarly Articles
- Against the Law: Crime, Sharp Practice and the Control of Print
- Women's Lives and the Eighteenth-Century Novel
- 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature
- Minnesota Rag: Corruption, Yellow Journalism, and the Case That Saved Freedom of the Press
- Consuming Silences: How We Read Authors Who Don't Publish
- Consuming Silences: How We Read Authors Who Don't Publish
- Educational Publishing In Global Perspective: Capacity Building and Trends
- The Literary Field of Twentieth-Century China
- Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japan (ConsumAsiaN S.)
- A Companion to Shakespeare (Blackwell Companions to Literature & Culture S.)
- The Small Press Guide: The Complete Guide to Poetry and Small Press Magazines (Writers' Bookshop S.)
- An Author's Guide to Scholarly Publishing
Average customer rating:
- Lacks bling, but good resource for writers.
- Very Informative
- Medication for Writing Cramps
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Reporting for the Media
Fred Fedler , John R. Bender , Lucinda Davenport , and Michael W. Drager
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Similar Items:
- AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law)
- Working with Words: A Handbook for Media Writers and Editors
- The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and The Public Should Expect
- Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication
- A First Look at Communication Theory with Conversations CD-ROM
ASIN: 0195169999 |
Book Description
Now in its eighth edition, Reporting for the Media continues its outstanding tradition in journalism education. Providing both students and instructors with a firm foundation on which to build journalistic success, it emphasizes the most important skills and characteristics of effective reporters--how to be engaged in and curious about the world and how to articulate a good story. Reporting for the Media, 8/e, introduces students to news writing and reporting by focusing on such basics as grammar and mechanics, traditional story structures and styles, interviewing techniques, reporting on speeches and meetings, and common ethical dilemmas. Taking into consideration the increasingly multimedia nature of journalism, this new edition includes material on broadcast writing and convergence. It also covers prewriting, using the Internet, and computer-assisted reporting. The eighth edition features new exercises in nearly every chapter, expanded coverage of grammar--including parts of speech--and thoroughly updated real-life examples and illustrations, many covering issues that have arisen since 9/11. As in previous editions, this book features reading lists, discussion questions, suggested projects, five useful appendices, and end-of-chapter checklists. Reporting for the Media, 8/e, is an ideal text for introductory news writing and reporting courses.
Customer Reviews:
Lacks bling, but good resource for writers........2006-03-01
This book was required for my journalism 200 class.
Its many examples of excellent news writing, useful for journalists, could interest political science, marketing or creative writing majors or those with activist inclinations. Some of the featured writers also write fiction. The co-influence of the two genres are evident and that style is gaining popularity in new "info-tainment" venues. The text helps one understand how news is chosen and spun, as well as the down and dirty details of writing for a newspaper.
This book is brain food. Healthy, if not a favorite. By itself, the book is only for those in touch with their inner nerd. No shame, there. If you are reading it on your own, buy a used older edition (it should be cheap, as it will likely be missing the tear-out exercise pages) or just check it out from the library.
Assuming use as a class text, the style examples and facts of the book are interesting, but also contains a narcoleptic amount of tedious material, e.g. grammar, copy-editing, etc. If you are a student scope out your teacher and get a good one. The field stories he or she shares will make or break the class. If you are a professor, this book is a rock-solid resource, but you'll need to supplement it to keep your students awake.
I gave this book four stars because it absolutely does what it says it will, explains media reporting, but only if one defines "media" as traditional, old-school, print media. The lost star is because the book fails to address the fact that media is rapidly adjusting away from traditional print forms. This book should be volume one of two, with two being devoted to new forms of media and public relations--blogging, podcasting, undercover marketing, etc., many of which strive to entertain as they inform.
RELATED READING: For a historical view of traditional journalism, check out Tony Hillerman's autobiography, Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir. Hillerman worked in a variety of journalistic positions from 1948 to 1962 and later became famous as the best-selling author of the Joe Leaphorn (Navajo) mysteries. Either his Horatio Alger-like rise or his Catch-22 experiences in the military would be enough to make a good story, but don't just read the book. Hillerman's laconic narration is not to be missed.
Very Informative.......2005-10-26
I bought this book for my JOUR 201 class and it is very good as an introduction to journalism. It is a bit dry, but overall a good tool for the early journalist.
Medication for Writing Cramps.......2000-09-26
The seventh edition of Reporting for the Media is a useful tool for those just starting to learn to write a news story. It provides the basic underlying elements of a news story. With the formula provided, the reader learns the do's and don't's of the world of reporting news. From being accurate and concise to using correct style, the book provides a good tips for beginning news writers interested in expanding their knowledge. I recommend this book to professors needing a textbook for their classroom, or reporters who simply want to improve their newswriting.
Average customer rating:
- Writing and Reporting News
- Great book for a beginner like me
- Good Textbook
- A Great Way to Teach Writing
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Writing & Reporting News: A Coaching Method (Wadsworth Series in Mass Communication and Journalism)
Carole Rich
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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- AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law)
- When Words Collide: A Media Writer's Guide to Grammar and Style (with InfoTrac) (Wadsworth Series in Mass Communication and Journalism)
- Workbook for Writing and Reporting News: A Coaching Method
- The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and The Public Should Expect
- News Reporting and Writing
ASIN: 0495004235 |
Book Description
WRITING AND REPORTING NEWS prepares students for the changing world of journalism by emphasizing traditional basic skills while also stressing new trends in the convergence of print, broadcast and online media. With new information about blogs, multimedia writing, and other skills students will need for careers in the media, the Fifth Edition retains its emphasis on writing fundamentals and ethics in journalism, as well as the coaching method, which features tips and techniques from writing coaches and award-winning journalists. The text's strong "storytelling" approach with stories about journalists and its built-in instructional material make it accessible and easy for students to learn effective writing and reporting techniques for every news medium.
Customer Reviews:
Writing and Reporting News.......2006-03-14
Helps understand the fundamentals of writing and reporting in a real live situation. An extreme help for beginner journalists or writers.
Great book for a beginner like me.......2005-10-05
This book is a required text for a journalism class I'm taking at a junior college. It is extremely well written, and the best part is, it's written in simple terms. As a beginner, I'm finding the information extremely helpful. I haven't looked at the CD yet.
Good Textbook.......2003-12-17
As a student using this textbook, I have found that Rich is clear and direct in her instructions and gives examples that are easy to understand and follow. This is a must-have for any novice in journalism or a student learning to write for print journalism.
A Great Way to Teach Writing.......2000-03-28
I started using this text in my beginning reporting and writing classes a year ago. It was a strange experience: My students actually loved a textbook! I think that because this text does a good job of getting over the touchy-feely parts of treating the writing and editing processes as coaching processes, and shows how it's actually done. My students were able to convert her perspectives into some good work during our one-semester course. I'll be using this book again for some time to come.
Average customer rating:
- Great for Extreme Journalists
- Behind the Scenes of a Story
|
Associated Press Reporting Handbook
Jerry Schwartz
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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- Associated Press Guide to Newswriting: The Resource for Professional Journalists
- AP Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law)
- The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and The Public Should Expect
- How to Write Articles for Newspapers & Magazines, 2/e (Step By Step (Thomson Learning (Firm)).)
- The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on The Wall Street Journal Guide (Plume)
ASIN: 0071372172 |
Book Description
From dailies, to specialized monthlies and quarterlies, to online journals, there are now more venues for disseminating information than ever before—all of them in need of qualified reporters. Written for a new generation of journalists, this handbook schools readers in the art and science of reporting as practiced at the world’s largest and oldest news service. Written by an ace reporter with over 20 years on the job, it provides expert guidance and all the tools needed to successfully investigate and report on newsworthy events, locally, nationally, and internationally, including traditional pencil-and-paper technique as well as cutting-edge computer-assisted reporting technologies. Throughout, the book is enriched by insightful tips and anecdotes from veteran AP reporters such as trial writer Linda Deutsch, national writer and Pulitzer winner Charles J. Hanley, special correspondent Mort Rosenblum, space writer Marcia Dunn, and others.
Download Description
Written for a new generation of journalists, this handbook schools readers in the art and science of reporting as practiced at the world?s largest and oldest news service. Written by an ace reporter with over 20 years on the job, it provides expert guidance and all the tools needed to successfully investigate and report on newsworthy events, locally, nationally, and internationally, including traditional pencil-and-paper technique as well as cutting-edge computer-assisted reporting technologies.
Customer Reviews:
Great for Extreme Journalists.......2007-01-11
This book seemed to be speaking mostly to war correspondents or extreme journalists. Much of the information was not helpful to a small town journalist who is just looking for tips on how to interview and ethics.
Most of the book consisted of examples of great writing. All you have to do is pick up the front page of any large newspaper and you will get high quality examples of journalism. I thought this was completely unnecessary. Not what I expected.
Behind the Scenes of a Story.......2004-05-07
The "Associated Press Reporting Handbook" is not so much a how-to handbook as it is a series of glimpses behind the scenes to see how reporters work and what it takes to create the magic that makes it into print.
Rather than acting as an all-knowing instructor, Jerry Schwartz treats the reader as a fellow journalist who might be able to learn from the other reporters he introduces. The majority of the book reads like a collection of human interest stories in which the subjects are the reporters and specific examples of the stories they produced. Every chapter begins with an AP article and is followed by the story behind the story as told by the journalists themselves. This makes the book both enjoyable and incredibly informative because it gives real world examples of what it takes to be a good journalist, what goes into a great story and many of the factors and circumstances a non-journalist would never even consider.
Schwartz does a good job of covering different types of stories and situations (overseas reporting, investigative journalism, etc) so just about every journalist should be able to find something useful.
Those considering a career in journalism will probably benefit most from this book as will those new journalists just learning the ropes or trying to find their niche. Seasoned pros may enjoy reading the experiences of other journalists and may even pick up some ideas, but I think those who will benefit most from this book will be the rookies.
Average customer rating:
- Helpful tool for student online journalists
- Extremely Informative but a Little Over the Top
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Online Journalism: Reporting, Writing, and Editing for New Media (with InfoTrac )
Richard Craig
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
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Binding: Paperback
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- Online Journalism: Principles And Practices Of News For The Web
- The Elements of Online Journalism
- Convergent Journalism: An Introduction--Writing and Producing Across Media
- Web Journalism: Practice and Promise of a New Medium
- Flash Journalism: How to Create Multimedia News Packages
ASIN: 0534531466 |
Book Description
Learn to report, write, and edit for online media with ONLINE JOURNALISM with InfoTrac®! Created specifically with the Internet in mind, this communication text will help you explore the writing opportunities associated with online media. Interviews with online professionals are included throughout the text to give you an idea of exactly what the job of the online journalist entails. A comprehensive Web site helps keep the book up to date and provides additional material, including sound clips of some of the book's interviewees.
Customer Reviews:
Helpful tool for student online journalists.......2006-02-21
I am currently a graduate student in a writing program, and my background is in journalism. While my goal is to write for travel magazines, I certainly need to have a good understanding of web writing, more knowledge about creating and keeping up a web page (especially for a future publication), and some idea of how my writing must look on that page when it's published.
I found this book to be quite useful for online journalism practices, and I appreciated the many real world applications that the author used. The author, Dr. Richard Craig, has much experience in journalism himself, and he enforces the common practices of good writing that all journalism students should keep in mind. He is very thorough, but go on and stick with him until the end of this book.
Dr. Craig's book may be outdated in a matter of years or less, but overall, this is still a very helpful and timely textbook. Read it, even if you don't have to for a class!
Extremely Informative but a Little Over the Top.......2006-02-15
Online Journalism: Reporting, Writing and Editing for New Media is an informative book that explains the difference in writing for traditional media/press and the Web. The book does a great job of explaining why writing is so different on the Web and it illustrates the types of things that one must do in order to get a job in this new and growing profession. Although the comparisons are very effective in showing this difference in the beginning chapters, it become very monotonous to explain these differences throughout the book. A few of the chapters become long and over analytical because of such comparisons - specifically the chapters on interviewing and searching for information. I think it would have been more effective to have one chapter that gives a background on traditional media and then move on instead of badgering the point that the two are different. However, that is not to say that I didn't learn a lot from this book about writing, because I did.
It is obvious by the way that the author writes that he has an extensive background in this field and really cares about sharing this information with others. This helps the book in many ways to get the important point across.
Average customer rating:
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Broadcast News Handbook: Writing, Reporting, and Producing
C. A. Tuggle , Forrest Carr , and Suzanne Huffman
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
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Binding: Spiral-bound
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Similar Items:
- Associated Press Broadcast News Handbook
- Writing Broadcast News--Shorter, Sharper, Stronger
- It Takes More Than Good Looks To Succeed at TV News Reporting
- Sound And Look Professional On Television And The Internet: How To Improve Your On-Camera Presence
- Make it Memorable: Writing and Packaging TV News with Style
ASIN: 0072396822 |
Book Description
Broadcast News Writing Handbook will make students and professionals better writers and better broadcast journalists. With 50 years of combined broadcast journalism experience, the authors discuss how to write, how to craft language, and how to be effective story tellers. Some of the topics covered: Deadly Copy Sins and How to Avoid Them, Interviewing: Getting the Facts and the Feelings, Producing TV News, and Writing Sports Copy.
Customer Reviews:
great text.......2002-02-12
This handbook is a wonderful reference for broadcast writing and offers good general tips as well. The authors bring personal experiences to the book, and though I read this for a college journalism course, it was an enjoyable read and I intend to keep it on hand as I begin my uphill climb in the TV news world.
Average customer rating:
- A neat topic
- Very Sensible and Interesting
- Interesting read about the changes occurring in journalism...
- A Journalist Passionately Embraces the Internet
- Journalism in the 21st century is changing
|
We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People
Dan Gillmor
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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- The Revolution Will Not Be Televised : Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything
- The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism In The Information Age
- BLOG
- Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don't Follow the News
- Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
ASIN: 0596102275 |
Book Description
"We the Media, has become something of a bible for those who believe the online medium will change journalism for the better." -Financial Times
Big Media has lost its monopoly on the news, thanks to the Internet. Now that it's possible to publish in real time to a worldwide audience, a new breed of grassroots journalists are taking the news into their own hands. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras, these readers-turned-reporters are transforming the news from a lecture into a conversation. In We the Media, nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make--and consume--the news.
Gillmor shows how anyone can produce the news, using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, email, and a host of other tools. He sends a wake-up call to newsmakers-politicians, business executives, celebrities-and the marketers and PR flacks who promote them. He explains how to successfully play by the rules of this new era and shift from "control" to "engagement." And he makes a strong case to his fell journalists that, in the face of a plethora of Internet-fueled news vehicles, they must change or become irrelevant.
Journalism in the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the Big Media oligarchy that prevails today. We the Media casts light on the future of journalism, and invites us all to be part of it.
Dan Gillmor is founder of Grassroots Media Inc., a project aimed at enabling grassroots journalism and expanding its reach. The company's first launch is Bayosphere.com, a site "of, by, and for the San Francisco Bay Area."
Dan Gillmor is the founder of the Center for Citizen Media, a project to enable and expand reach of grassroots media. From 1994-2004, Gillmor was a columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper, and wrote a weblog for SiliconValley.com. He joined the Mercury News after six years with the Detroit Free Press. Before that, he was with the Kansas City Times and several newspapers in Vermont. He has won or shared in several regional and national journalism awards. Before becoming a journalist he played music professionally for seven years.
Customer Reviews:
A neat topic.......2007-03-18
The book was a good guide to citizen media and gave some great examples of places where citizen media would work.
I enjoyed the examples thoroughly and found the book a useful guide. I can't wait for an updated version.
Very Sensible and Interesting.......2006-10-15
Dan Gilmor here presents the attitude toward technology & journalism that any journalist will need to have if he/she will survive long in this new era. They need to embrace, or at least reckon with, the new media.
Here Gilmor gives an enlightening look at the changing face of journalism and the negative and positive changes it makes.
I'm not a professional journalist, but I found this book to be fascinating and informative. I credit it with helping me to stick with blogging, and seeing it as something more significant than a passing fad. All journalists should read this, I believe!
Interesting read about the changes occurring in journalism..........2006-07-16
If you ever wondered what is changing in journalism, then this book is for you. It not only describes the logging phenomenon, but also describes why the big media might not last.
A Journalist Passionately Embraces the Internet.......2006-06-21
Many people blame the Internet for accelerating the long-term decline of newspaper circulation, and think that the Internet is crippling the future of American journalism.
Don Gillmor believes that the Internet has the potential to dramatically improve American journalism and widen its appeal.
Gillmor is no naive innocent. He demonstrates that he has an extraordinarily detailed command of the interrelationships and applications of the many internet and software technologies and journalism. I met Gillmor in April, 2004, at the BloggerconII conference organized by Dave Winer and held at Harvard Law School. He held the attention of his audience of bloggers through his mixture of detailed knowledge and passionate advocacy for the worth of blogging and the value of it becoming an income-generating activity.
No journalist should fail to read this book. Nor should any citizen consumer of journalism who participates online. Only a small part manifesto, this book is a detailed roadmap of the future of journalism for those informed enough and bold enough to take it. Those in business and government who are the subjects of journalism would also do well to read it.
The future of journalism, Gillmor says, will be much more participatory in the future than it has been in the past. The many to many communications style of the Internet will become the style of successful journalism. Journalism will less about lecturing and more about leading a discussion. The "eat your spinach" school of civic advocacy will be replaced by a greater connection between readers and journalists in which readers will influence both the definition of news and the content of individual news stories.
The proliferation of tens of millions of blogs means that the separation of news producers and news consumers is far less than it used to be. Everyone can produce news in the blogosphere. One duty of journalists is to sift the through the blogosphere and find out what is relevant. Another duty of journalists is to actively engage the public in the news gathering process. The definition of what professionalism in journalism is will be rapidly changing.
What is now at the edges, Gillmour says, will and should be moved to the center. Public concerns that once were marginal now will become mainstream.
As a Pennsylvania state legislator, I believe that this will have significant public policy effects--especially the areas of taxation and public welfare expenditures. For the first time, those with average and below average incomes are able to communicate their concerns to a mass audience. The more the digital divide in Internet access erodes, as the divide in telephone and television access has eroded, the greater the erosion will be of the upper middle class dominance of the political process. The stakes for putting the brakes on the trends Gillmor describes will get increasingly large in the years ahead.
This is not just a book for journalists and the subjects of journalism, or even just a book for currently active internet participants. The detailed accounts of the consumer applications of various technologies of what he calls the "the read-write web" or "technology that makes we the media possible" are alone worth the effort to get through this book.
Others may understand individual technologies better than Gillmor, but it is unlikely that anyone has a better understanding of how they all--HTML,mail lists and forums,weblogs, wikis, SMS, mobile connected cameras, internet "broadcasting," peer to peer, RSS,Technorati, API, and many others--come to together to create a radically different architecture of information, news, personal reach, and circle of potential friends and allies for many millions of Americans.
This is not a book to be read and put aside. Gillmor clearly struggled to get his text into 241 pages, plus 36 pages of acknowledgements, websites, and detailed notes. While there is occasional redundancy, on the whole a longer book would have been clearer in some respects.
This is a book to be carefully studied and used as a springboard to continued learning about new applications, new technologies, and new interrelationships as they emerge.
The idea of the public as part of the media is not totally new.
Going back at least to the 1940's, public opinion research focused on the stages of influence: the mass media first influenced the opinion leaders in a community, who then influenced others by word of mouth.
What is new is the dramatically improved publishing capacity for the individual citizen, regardless of whether he or she had the community stature and web of influence to have been a community leader--formal or informal--in the past.
The media had been steadily eroding the influence of opinion leaders, by influencing more and more people directly, but now the opinion leaders are back in record-high numbers and with greatly expanded spheres of influence.
"I hope I've helped you understand how this media shift--this explosion of conversations--is taking place and where it is headed," Gllmour says on the last page of his book. "Most of all, I hope I've persuaded you to take up the challenge yourself.
"Your voice matters. Now, if you have something to say, you can be heard.
"You can make your own news. We all can.
"Let's get started."
Journalism in the 21st century is changing .......2006-05-21
Any interested in the future of new media must have WE THE MEDIA: GRASSROOTS JOURNALISM BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE: a survey of how common folk are producing more meaningful news coverage using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, and email as their delivery tools. Journalism in the 21st century is changing - and will be quite different from the media-controlled presentations we know today. To find out just how different, you have to consult WE THE MEDIA: it comes from a journalist and founder of the very grassroots media making big changes.
Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch
Average customer rating:
- Good book, bad subtitle
- a wonderful book, an inspirational life
- Inspiring story of a true journalist watchdog
- A book for smart people!
- Required Reading For Today
|
All Governments Lie: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone
Myra MacPherson
Manufacturer: Scribner
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Binding: Hardcover
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- Best of I. F. Stone
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ASIN: 0684807130 |
Book Description
Boasting equal parts scholarship and style, "All Governments Lie" is a highly readable, groundbreaking, and timely look at I. F. Stone -- one of America's most independent and revered journalists, whose work carries the same immediacy it did almost a half century ago, highlighting the ever-present need for dissenting voices.
In the world of Washington political journalism, notorious for trading independence for access, I. F. "Izzy" Stone was so unique as to be a genuine wonder. Always skeptical -- "All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out," he memorably quipped -- Stone was ahead of the pack on the most pivotal twentieth-century trends: the rise of Hitler and Fascism, disastrous Cold War foreign policies, covert actions of the FBI and CIA, the greatness of the Civil Rights movement, the horror of Vietnam, the strengths and weaknesses of the antiwar movement, the disgrace of Iran-contra, and the class greed of Reaganomics. His constant barrage against J. Edgar Hoover earned him close monitoring by the FBI from the Great Depression through the Vietnam War, and even an investigation for espionage during the fifties.
After making his mark on feisty New York dailies and in The Nation -- scoring such scoops as the discovery of American cartels doing business with Nazi Germany -- Stone became unemployable during the dark days of McCarthyism. Out of desperation he started his four-page I. F. Stone's Weekly, which ran from 1953 to 1971. The first journalist to label the Gulf of Tonkin affair a sham excuse to escalate the Vietnam War, Stone garnered worldwide fans, was read in the corridors of power, and became wealthy. Later, the "world's oldest living freshman" learned Greek to write his bestseller The Trial of Socrates.
Here, for the first time, acclaimed journalist and author Myra MacPherson brings the legendary Stone into sharp focus. Rooted in fifteen years of research, this monumental biography includes information from newly declassified international documents and Stone's unpublished five-thousand-page FBI file, as well as personal interviews with Stone and his wife, Esther; with famed modern thinkers; and with the best of today's journalists. It illuminates the vast sweep of turbulent twentieth-century history as well as Stone's complex and colorful life. The result is more than a masterful portrait of a remarkable character; it's a far-reaching assessment of journalism and its role in our culture.
Customer Reviews:
Good book, bad subtitle.......2007-01-02
This is a good book, although I agree that it's too long. My one quibble is with the subtitle, specifically: "Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone." Izzy Stone is one of the few celebrities I admire, but he was no rebel. The noun "rebel" means "To refuse allegiance to and oppose by force an established government or ruling authority." Stone certainly did not support the idea of opposing the United States government by force. The very foundation of I. F. Stone's Weekly, and his rare genius, lay in exposing government misdeeds and power abuses by revealing the government's own words! Hardly a rebellious act. As to refusing allegiance, although Stone was no blind patriot, he refused allegiance to the illegitimate authority of the likes of Joseph McCarthy, HUAC loyalty oaths, and the infamous J. Edgar Hoover. Stone was a reformer, in the best sense of that word. He was no rebel.
On the other hand, if the English language has so deteriorated that I.F. Stone was a rebel, then we need millions more like him!
a wonderful book, an inspirational life.......2006-12-19
In the interest of full disclosure, I have a bit of personal history with Izzy, Esther, and their son Chris, as well as a smaller bit with the author. From 1959 to 1962 I was a classmate and acquaintance of Chris in law school. Chris told me about his dad and convinced me to subscribe to I.F. Stone's Weekly, which I continued to do until its demise. Sometime in 1966 or 1967 while living in Washinton, DC, I threw a party and on a whim invited Izzy and Esther, and to my great surprise, they accepted and showed up. Then, to cap it off, two months ago, when I was about halfway through the book, I was at a cocktail party and was introduced to someone named...Myra MacPherson. Of course I was entranced with the bizarre coincidence of meeting someone whose book I was currently reading. I mention all this in case you might want to discount my enthusiasm for the book because of possible bias.
This book is valuable for so many reasons: first, it tells the story of a life well lived, of a man who had the courage to follow his passion and tell the truth as he saw it, letting the chips fall where they would without being intimidated by any possible reactions. It is an inspirational story. Second, it provides a perspective on American history from the thirties and into the seventies, with Izzy's prescience about our role in Vietnam presaging similar concerns about our current role in Iraq. Third, it traces the history of leftist politics with all the various and twisting strands during that period. Fourth, it documents the depredations of the FBI in its view of certain varieties of free speech as subversive, along with those of the House Un-American Activities Committee. And fifth, it reveals pusillanimity of most other journalists, who were passively accepting and passing along goverment lies during that period. All told, quite an accomplishment.
If I have a quibble, it would be the 600+ page length, especially all the space devoted to each FBI report. I kept thinking, "Enough already--I get it!" Also, I felt concerned that the formidable length might deter potential readers, and that would be a shame because this book is a gem, a slightly oversize gem perhaps, but a gem nonetheless.
Inspiring story of a true journalist watchdog.......2006-10-23
I had been looking forward eagerly to All Governments Lie, Myra MacPherson's thorough study of I.F. Stone's work and times. I had a deep personal interest in the project and confess to being absolutely delighted with the results.
I mention a deep personal interest and the reasons for this are many. For starters: I am a contemporary and there aren't too many of us left. It is true that he was 10 years my senior but still we shared depression and war and cold war years. I can't say that we knew each other, although we did meet on a few widely scattered occasions, but I did attend his school, The University of Pennsylvania. There in his home town of Philadelphia, I moved in circles that included relatives and friends with whom he had grown up. That enables me to say that I had a good second hand acquaintance with him.
I introduce myself in this manner to justify the comments I am about to make about the book. I confine myself to just one area of the book's treatment of the life of the man the author calls "the rebel journalist". I felt warm satisfaction in the way she swept into the garbage pail the ludicrous charge that Stone was guilty of espionage for the Soviet Union. She is convincing on the subject and reminds us of what should put an end to this baseless gossip. The F.B.I. never found one shred of evidence, and it was not for lack of trying.
J. Edgar Hoover was a stubborn, determined man when he had a hated target in his sights. He despised Stone to the point where he had made up his mind to get rid of him. To him the Stone threat was in the same class as those of Martin Luther King and Albert Einstein and we recall the viciousness and relentlessness of his attempts to ruin them. On the matter of the espionage smear, I can state with warm satisfaction now, because of this book: "Case closed!"
On a related theme, Ms MacPherson demonstrates a level of insight and understanding not always displayed by writers discussing her book. She comprehends, as they do not, that one had to have lived through the epoch to realize how it was possible to have taken pro-Soviet stands in the 1930s and '40s. With the hind sight of this century one can sneer at one who was so blind as to be taken in by Joseph Stalin. But for one who lived through the period, and Ms. MacPherson did not, I am in a position to make some points on this.
Those of us who lived during those years with our eyes and ears open, were aware of the threat that soon developed into the nightmare of World War II. We saw in Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia and Hitler's various menacing moves what the world would be faced with if measures weren't taken. Yet it was only the Soviet representative at the League of Nations during the mid to late 30s, Maxim Litvinov, who stood up and made the much needed accusations and called for collective security. The Italian and German n delegations walked out and the representatives of the great democracies remained cowed and silent. Let me add to this the shameful memory of the Spanish Civil War and the so called Non-intervention Committee. Only The Soviet Union and Mexico came to the aid of the legitimately elected government of Republican Spain.
Many highly respected people wrote admiringly of the Soviet Union, from the muckraking journalist, Lincoln Steffens, to Beatrice and Sidney Webb to Ambassador Joseph E. Davies to the saintly Hewlett Johnson, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral.
If you weren't there then, it's easy to look back now and ask: "How could he not have known?" Well, Myra MacPherson wasn't there then, but she has the insight to reveal the situation that existed and to explain the way decent people lined up.
This book is a must reading for younger generations who know so little about these times.
A book for smart people!.......2006-10-23
I.F. Stone, a great reporter, told the truth to power without giving it a second thought. Would that the current crop of investigative reporters had done the same. This book, beautifully written by former reporter Myra MacPherson, through ten years of interviews and research, puts Stone in context to his times, and will make you wish there was such a person watching Washington today. Buy this book now.
Required Reading For Today.......2006-09-11
This is a wonderful, thoughtful and extremely interesting book. We can always learn from the past. Myra MacPherson tells a compelling story. A fascinating must read!!!
SBB
San Francisco,Ca.
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The Greenwood Library of American War Reporting (8 Volume Set)
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The Greenwood Library of American War Reporting Volume 1: The French and Indian War; The Revolutionary War Volume 2: The War of 1812; The Mexican-American War Volume 3: The Civil War North; The Civil War South Volume 4: The Indian Wars; The Spanish-American War Volume 5: World War I; World War II, The European Theater Volume 6: World War II, The Asian Theater; The Korean War Volume 7: The Vietnam War; Post-Vietnam Conflicts Volume 8: The Iraq Wars and the War on Terror & Index The Greenwood Library of American War Reporting presents a unique and unfiltered presentation of American History from colonial days to the present through annotated primary documents of journalists and reporters writing as events occured. The definitive reference source on culture and history during wartime America's conflicts, each volume collects key news reports on battles, politics, the home front, peace talks, massacres, and much more. Substantial context-setting overviews introduce every volume, topical chapter, and unabridged primary source. Over 2,500 annotated news reports - newspaper and magazine articles, and radio and television transcripts - and 400 drawings and photos cover every major and most minor conflicts over the past 250 years, from the French & Indian Wars to the War on Terror. Read history as it was being made in these immediate, raw, and often confused reports about life-and-death struggles on the front lines and the critical activities on the home front. Features: BLPulitzer Prize-Winning Articles and Photos BLAll Articles are annotated BLReader's Guide to Documents BLIntroductory Essays BL2,500 Primary Documents BL400 Images BLThematic Indices Topics to explore using the set include: BLAfrican Americans and war BLNative Americans and war BLWomen and War BLChildren and War BLDaily life and the home front BLRacism and Race Relations BLEconomics and war BLMassacres adn Atrocities BLBattles at Sea BLAir Battles BLLand Campaigns BLInvasions BLMilitary Leaders BLPolitical Leaders BLEspionage BLAnti-war protests BLCensorship BLPropaganda BLPeace Treaties adn Armistices BLPacifism BLConcentration Camps BLThe Atom Bomb BLCivilian Casualties BLTerrorism BLPrisoners of War BLPresidential Politics Includes Pieces Written or Presented by well-known figures such as: BLErnie Pyle BLStephen Crane BLErnest Hemingway BLMarguerite Higgins BLGeorge Padmore BLEdward R. Murrow BLMargaret Bourke-White BLJohn Hersey BLJohn Brown BLWilliam Lloyd Garrison BLWilliam Harding BLWalter Cronkite BLPeter Arnett BLDavid Halberstam BLMorley Safer BLMichael Herr BLSeymour M. Hersh BLRobert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer BLBob Woodward BLRandall Pinkston BLJudy Woodruff BLPeggy Durdin BLJohn Paul Vann BLBernard Shaw BLLarry King BLDan Rather BLWilliam Safire BLKatie Couric Sample of Where Work was Originally Published in or Presented: BLChicago Defender BLSaturday Evening Post BLStars & Stripes BLNew York Times BLWashington Post BLSan Francisco Chronicle BLLife BLCleveland Plain Dealer BLNew York World BLChicago Daily News BLWall Street Journal BLTime BLBoston Globe BLChristian Science Moniter BLAtlanta Journal and Constitution BLSt. Paul Pioneer Press BLCNN BLKentucky Journal BLBaltimore Sun BLHartford Daily Current BLCharleston Mercury BLSavannah Republican BLNewsweek BLRamparts BLThe New Republic BLThe New Yorker BLCBS Evening News BLHarper's BLLos Angeles Times BLThe Associated Press BLThe MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour BLNational Intelligencer BLAlbany Gazette BLThe Liberator BLNightline BLABC World News Now BLNPR: All Things Considered BLFairness & Accuracy in Reporting Highlights: BLGeorge Washington's 1754 Expedition to the Ohio Valley BLThe Fall of Fort Duquesne, 1758 BLThe Fall of Quebec BLThe Boston Tea Party BLThe Declaration of Independence BLThe Battle of Yorktown BLTecumseh, the Prophet, and Native Americans BLBurning of Washington BLBattle of New Orleans BLThe Alamo and Texas Revolution BLManifest Destiny BLThe Wilmot Proviso BLSouthern Cessation from the Union BLThe Emancipation Proclamation BLThe Battle of Shiloh BLThe Battle of Gettysburg BLSherman's March to the Sea BLAppomattox Courtyard BLThe Modoc War BLThe Battle of Little Bighorn BLWounded Knee BLThe Destruction of the Maine BLYellow Journalism and the Spanish-American War BLThe Philippines Insurrection BLSinking of the Lusitania BLThe Zimmermann Telegram BLWoodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points BLBlack United States Servicemen in England BLD-Day and Its Immediate Aftermath BLFreeing the German Concentration Camp Prisoners BLThe Attack on Pearl Harbor BLInvasion of Okinawa BLDropping the Atom Bomb on Nagasaki BLTurnabout at Inchon BLTruman versus MacArthur BLBlack Soldiers and the Women of the Korean War BLTet Offensive BLSiege of Khesanh BLMylai Massacre BLClan Wars in Somalia, 1992-1993 BLWar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1992-1997 BLSeptember 11 Attacks BLThe PATRIOT Act BLHomeland Security BLAbu Ghraib Prisoner Abuse
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- Effects of digitalrevolution in practising global journalism
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Practising Global Journalism: Exploring Reporting Issues Worldwide
John Herbert
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ASIN: 0240516028 |
Book Description
From this book, you will gain an understanding of the global media marketplace - the technology, the players and the issues. The role of news agencies, sources and networks are explored covering the issues of ethics, global media ownership and control. Find out how journalists are using the web and learn even newer ways to collect and communicate information.
Essential reading for today's practising and trainee journalists. John Herbert examines the global environment in which journalists operate and describes the latest technology and its impact on print, broadcast and online journalism practice.
Practising Global Journalism is a unique overview of the profession, providing a comparative study of journalism practice worldwide. Case studies are drawn from Europe, Australia, the Asia Pacific, South Asia, China, Africa and the Americas.
International case studies compare journalism practice worldwide
Understand how the digital revolution is affecting journalism globally
Gain first hand knowledge from a renowned expert in this field
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Effects of digitalrevolution in practising global journalism.......2001-09-17
The advantages of now reachable unseen `Territories' and freedom of `Technology' has deep lightning effects in how news flows with context to global journalism practices. The gargantuan nature of news coverage & distribution has greatly been affected by digital revolution, learnings from patterns, ethics, ownerships and controls, says Shiladitya `Sunny' Ghosh in a book review of Practising Global Journalism: exploring reporting issues worldwide written by Prof. John Herbert.
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- Bad News, Bad, Bad News!
- Fairly weak and assuming.
- all the news they didn't see fit to print
- Bad News
- a rant fell short to become a poignant criticism but simply joined gossips (which it supposedly was meant to criticise)
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Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger to Us All
Tom Fenton
Manufacturer: Regan Books
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ASIN: 0060797460
Release Date: 2005-03-01 |
Customer Reviews:
Bad News, Bad, Bad News!.......2006-08-01
Tom Fenton has a bone to pick.
As a veteran foreign correspondent for CBS News, he watched as his industry gave up investigative antagonistic independent journalism for "puff pieces," Barbara Walters/Geraldo Rivera-style entertainment, and rebroadcasting corporate and/or government packaged reports masquerading as "news." He's completely right that for at least 20 years the evening news has been a sham.
Economics is part of it, as Fenton describes how a couple tenths of a percentage point in the ratings means millions in advertising revenue. By pandering to the lowest common denominator, the major networks have guaranteed that the LCD is the only demographic served.
Also part of it, as Fenton takes great pains to point out, is the coziness of news bureaus with the current administration, which freezes out journalists who do not toe the party line. When lying to the public has become such an art, exposing the man behind the curtain is a sure trip to the Nowhere Idaho beat, or an IRS audit, or both.
Fenton has stern words for the current Bush Administration, as well as the Clinton and Bush Sr. Administrations before it. He seems rather soft on the Reagan Administration, even though this was when the run-up to Wall Street tyranny began.
The first third of the book is a little annoying, as Fenton takes every opportunity to place himself on a short list consisting of "Cronkite, Brokaw, Rather & Fenton." Frankly, I don't think he belongs on that list.
Nevertheless, having established his credentials the second third of the book details the failings of the TV news industry, how foreign bureaus were trimmed or eliminated completely after the fall of the USSR, and how American news turned inward and downward -- to our great detriment. In large part the developments in the world-at-large went unreported for two decades so the events of 1998-2001 caught many of us by surprise.
The last third of the book explains why this situation is so dangerous. In a nutshell, with nobody trusted & respected to report world events accurately, the Administration is free to contradict facts bold-facedly and the public either buys the lies or is willing to entertain the notion. In a state where the "Fourth Estate" does not function, the truth is a casualty and becomes open to interpretation -- or spin -- or outright political manipulation. You can't have Democracy without an informed populace.
Tom is right, this is unacceptable.
His book is unusually forthright, startlingly direct, and surprisingly it names names. That it came to print at all is a glimmer of hope that a free press still has a chance to resurrect itself, and the tide may yet be turned.
We can only hope.
Fairly weak and assuming........2006-07-11
If you buy the role Fenton proposes for the media, then perhaps you might like this book more. But since he simply posits that the media is there to protect the country, promote unity, and a whole list of other (about 10 total) roles of the media, and then fails to explain why this is the media's role.....I sit there questioning this expansive role of news.
I see the newsmedia as a source of information. They are to provide the people with the who/what/where/how and why of what is going on in the world at large and locally. They are NOT to be ideology machines, whether good or bad ideologies.
Fenton observes how foreign news has drastically declined since the Cold War and how disastrous this has been. Here, describing the ins and outs of his field he excels, and does not spare any administration or political position. Yet he fails to notice that the reason why it was so much easier to report news in the Cold War era, and why his goals of unifying the country blah blah were so much more attainable is because we had an obvious enemy in front of us. In today's society, what foreign threat do we focus upon? Terrorism, the middle east, n. korea, chinese economic expansion, resurgent russian and japanese nationalism? Its unfortunate and a very valid point that the newsmedia seems to focus on NONE of these, at least with their own correspondents abroad. But Fenton's attacks often draw upon the sympathies of a post-911 world. Of course the news, like the government should have paid more attention to Bin Laden and company. We now that NOW. But hindsight is 20/20.
all the news they didn't see fit to print.......2006-06-22
Fenton cites many instances of important events brewing that were never reported, so that when the situation exploded, it seemed to come out of nowhere. An early one was the impending fall of the Shah of Iran, a situation that Fenton personally reported but which was dropped from the broadcasts as not sufficiently interesting. The most spectacular was the news of 9/11 which the New York Times had two days in advance. It chose to put the news on its website but not print it in the newspaper that prints "all the news that's fit to print." (p. 6) Fenton's reporting of this long list of unreported news is the major reason for reading this book. "Had there been a drumbeat of segments on network news showing the steadily rising Islamist threat abroad, we might be living in a different world now." (p. 5)
Fenton's message is that entertainment trumps hard news every time. The causes of this include "underfunding, arrogant insularity, contempt for the view's attention span, loss of mission, corporate greed." (p. 191) News media are now owned by corporations that own many other businesses. Profit, or the bottom line, is their mission, not informing the public. This has led them to close foreign news bureaus and to take their "news" from local feeders. At the same time, salaries for anchors and other stars of the news media have risen from $36,000 for each in the mid-1960s to 12 or 15 million apiece today.
"Anyone accustomed to watching CNN abroad, or the BBC in England, cannot believe what those channels offer in the U.S. market." (p. 223) "They manifestly assume that American tastes simply cannot be raised." Fenton admits that this could be true. "Perhaps Americans, particularly younger Americans, have become too fluff-happy, too incapable of concerted attention." (p. 233) (Virtually every book and article on the American education system confirms this.)
Bias or "spin" also is discussed, and Fenton says that it is getting worse. Much of it is corporate in origin, advertisers, etc. However, "No one ever mentions the influence of ethnic lobbies or affiliations on American media." (p. 99) "Yet neither will you see much on network news about the influence of Saudi money in Washington" (p. 103)
Fenton mentions blogs and ezines but contends that they are mainly pushing a point of view rather than reporting hard facts.
As one solution, Fenton recommends the formation of a news pressure group, perhaps composed of retired newsmen and anchors. The group's first job should be to "out" news executives who turn down important news stories. The group "should run a weekly register of egregious news shortfalls." (p. 236) It should also feature "comparative lists of how the media in other countries reported stories differently from ours, or showed us up in reporting what we didn't."
Perhaps we could add that a good place to get the news you're not getting is to read the many nonfiction books available here on Amazon. One of the most important recent books is While America Sleeps: How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination are Destroying America from Within.
Bad News.......2006-01-06
Anyone who tries to follow news in the current atmosphere of world events knows that journalism, TV journalism in particular, is in a sad state. Retiring foreign correspondent Tom Fenton is canny to jump on the issue right now, when it's fresh in a lot of minds. He offers a lot of insights into what's wrong now. But in the end he lacks a clear vision of how the industry used to be and how it got to be where it is now.
Fenton points out that the major American TV networks have exactly one foreign bureau these days, in London. At home, "news" often consists of repackaging press releases from the government or Big Business, and abroad, news is regularly purchased wholesale from the BBC and other sources, international bureaus have withered to a few stringers, and many networks (Fox News in particular) have fallen prey to creating "spectaculars" with celebrity newsmen like Geraldo Rivera.
The author is correct to point out that this represents a major decline from the heyday of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. News is on the skids. But as early as page twenty-seven, he reveals why things used to be better back in the Golden Age of newsgathering: the Cold War. Fear of the Soviets justified massive outlays that can't exist in the absence of a monolithic enemy. Any Noam Chomsky acolyte would point out that this means the news was NEVER really about facts, but rather about nationalist propaganda.
And Fenton is contradictory about how things stand today. For instance, he suggests that many news veterans are still stuck in a Vietnam-era liberal mindset and that's why they're eager to let slide on hard news gathering, tossing softballs to world leaders like President Bush and Vladimir Putin. Let me repeat that for you: he thinks that it is old-line leftism that is causing the news to give a free pass to right-wing nationalists like Bush and Putin. Need I explain why this is a ridiculous notion?
Still, there are a lot of ways Fenton is correct. Because newsgathering is toothless today, we have no context to understand forces like Islamist terror and Russian neocolonialism. Frivolous attitudes toward Chinese industrial expansionism and Venezuelan saber-rattling leave the average American unequipped to prepare for what may be our next big national struggle. And our highly overpaid news anchors have a moral responsibility to push their correspondents and stringers for a higher standard of reportage.
Even the solutions Fenton suggests are valid. An hour-long prime-time news show every night would be a good idea, and the success of shows like Dateline and 60 Minutes proves that people would watch them. An FCC willing to enforce the networks' responsibility to the public good would bring news in line with what it should be, and what we certainly need, to grasp our place in the world.
For all this good, Fenton's appeal to false nostalgia and his oddly contradictory view of how things are right now undermines how we see and understand his arguments. (And all this is not helped by odd typographical quirks that suggest the publisher was in a real hurry to get the book out and move on. I think we should expect higher quality from a HarperCollins imprint.)
Fenton is canny to spot a real need and throw his weight behind solutions. And with a little time and consideration, I suspect this book could have been a major contribution to real improvements in the state of affairs. But as it is it's a near miss, a selectively useful and alternately odd book that clouds the issues as much as it clarifies them. If you want to participate in the push for a more responsible press, this book is not the one for you.
a rant fell short to become a poignant criticism but simply joined gossips (which it supposedly was meant to criticise).......2005-12-02
I remember that I thought, at times, that American news shows would do better if they watched BBC or listened to NPR. I simply couldn't find what I wanted to know (i have to confess I skipped a good chunck; i couldn't take it) such as an answer to "Why all the major broadcasting stations chose to use certain words in reporpting the incidents in middle east, war on terror, war o/[i]n iraq, etc? (I still don't know when it actually became a war, in terms of the offical U.S. forein policy). The U.S. disregarding the U.N.'s inspection/judgement was enough at least for some of us to doubt any yet-coming-out proof of existence of WMD's. It is a piece of news, indeed informative one, if we hear a simple truth like it's too risky for reporters to go into certain regions and don't really know what's going on there or the U.S. goverment didn't allow reporters to go to certain areas, etc. Again, some of us figured anyway because we never heard iraqis talk on TV--even now we do rarely on radio (to tell you the truth i haven't had a TV for a long time). I believe that the american media didn't fail to inform the public what they knew, but they failed to inform that they didn't/couldn't know. Chomsky, though i often find myself disagree with him, is better---by far.
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