The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy
The business of journalism is widely held to be in a terminal crisis today, in particular because the rise of the internet has drained audience attention and advertising revenue away from existing media platforms. This book, the first systematic international overview of how the news industry is dealing with current changes, counters such simplistic predictions of the supposedly technologically determined death of the news industry. It offers instead nuanced scrutiny of the threats and opportunities facing legacy news organisations across the world in countries as diverse as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland, Brazil, and India as they transition to an increasingly convergent media landscape.
The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy establishes that this is no time for fatalism, but for a renewed commitment to journalism and its role in democracy – from journalists themselves and from media managers and policy-makers, all of whom can learn from professional, commercial, and policy developments beyond their own countries, developments such as those analysed here.
The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy, as the only rigorous global survey of a situation usually discussed on the basis of anecdote and unproved assertion, is an indispensable and necessary work. It ought to open the way for real progress in reinventing journalism.
-- Nicholas Lemann, Dean and Henry R. Luce Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
This is a very detailed and rich analysis of the structural changes in today’s business of journalism: the media in many countries face a deep crisis caused both by new technologies and more general economic circumstances while in others they are experiencing rapid growth. In both cases the entire structure of the field is undergoing a dramatic change in terms of professional practice and in how media are organized and run. This book represents an indispensable tool for all those who want to understand where journalism and democracy are going today.
-- Paolo Mancini, Professor at Università di Perugia and co-author of Comparing Media Systems (Cambridge, 2004)
Download a podcast from journalism.co.uk of interviews with some of the contributors and panellists at the launch event here
Read a review at the European Journalism Observatory here
