Description
Bloomsbury The Scoiology of Journalism by Brian McNair
Journalism is a privileged cultural form. It can bring down governments,influence wars, shift stock markets and destroy industries. It is themain source of our knowledge about the world and our place in it, andthe point at which the individual and the social worlds meet.Referringto cases drawn from both the US and the UK, including the White Housesex scandals and the death of Diana, this book examines the variousfactors involved in the making of contemporary journalism, includingeconomic and political pressures, changes in the technology of newsgathering and production, and the growing role of sources and 'sourcestrategies'. The text analyses how such factors come to exert influenceon the form, content and style of journalism, and reviews currentapproaches to the sociology impact of journalism on individuals, groupsand organisations.The Sociology of Journalism combinesa comprehensive survey of the elements of journalistic production withcritical analysis of traditional liberal pluralist and materialistperspectives on the subject. It calls for an approach which recognisesthe chaotic unpredictability and discursive instability of contemporarycultural production, and of journalism in particular.