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The Death And Life Of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin The World Again (2009)

by Robert W. McChesney(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1568586051 (ISBN13: 9781568586052)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Nation Books

review 1: For anyone who has ever sat in front of the TV or read an article and ever asked themselves, "Why do I waste my time with this trash?" when confronted with the empty, partisan quarrels, conspiracy theories, and celebrity gossip that seem to pass for news these days, this is the book for you.McChesney and Nichols offer some creative ideas for government subsidies that encourage the revival of journalism (especially at the local level) without direct government control over what gets published. While they maintain that "free press" does indeed mean the exclusion of the government from the editorial process, they point to the important role that federal postal subsidies played in fostering the growth of newspapers in America's early days. Excited but healthily skeptical abo... moreut the possibilities of digital journalism, this is not a bucket of a nostalgia for the decaying remains of 20th century commercial journalism. McChesney and Nichols exhortations and heady prose get a bit repetitive after a while, but this is still a worthwhile read.
review 2: There wasn't much in this book which wasn't already public knowledge to anyone who has (gasp!) watched a good news program or read an actual newspaper lately. That's right, I said it. Even so, I admired the passion and intelligence the authors brought to the issue. They did a fine job of stressing the inextricable link between a healthy democracy and informed, critical journalistic culture. The old models won't do. Newspapers can die (no ad dollars!) and democracy may thrive; it's journalism, good, old-fashioned, gritty, cut-your-teeth-journalism which is at risk. It's finding brave men and women unafraid to ask the hard questions and speak truth to proverbial power which is at stake. It's finding men and women with the courage to be more than simple mouthpieces to the parties in power that matters. It's digging deeper and thinking more. Aggregating links, posting Youtube videos, and Tweeting links is NOT the same as a concerted, discerning investigative journalistic effort. The problem is that we are fast becoming a culture which will never have known the difference between digi-news and digging for the news. I hope I'm dead before the takeover is complete. Even so, it was a good book, but it wasn't a great book. less

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