Mister Pulitzer and the Spider: Modern News from Realism to the Digital

Author:   Kevin G Barnhurst
Publisher:   University of Illinois Press
ISBN:  

9780252083914


Pages:   320
Publication Date:   30 July 2018
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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Mister Pulitzer and the Spider: Modern News from Realism to the Digital


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Overview

"A spidery network of mobile online media has supposedly changed people, places, time, and their meanings. A prime case is the news. Digital webs seem to have trapped ""legacy media,"" killing off newspapers and journalists' jobs. Did news businesses and careers fall prey to the digital ""Spider""?   To solve the mystery, Kevin Barnhurst spent thirty years studying news going back to the realism of the 1800s. The usual suspects--technology, business competition, and the pursuit of scoops--are only partly to blame for the fate of news. The main culprit is modernism from the ""Mister Pulitzer"" era, which transformed news into an ideology called ""journalism."" News is no longer what audiences or experts imagine. Stories have grown much longer over the past century and now include fewer events, locations, and human beings. Background and context rule instead.   News producers adopted modernism to explain the world without recognizing how modernist ideas influence the knowledge they produce. When webs of networked connectivity sparked a resurgence in realist stories, legacy news stuck to big-picture analysis that can alienate audience members accustomed to digital briefs.  "

Full Product Details

Author:   Kevin G Barnhurst
Publisher:   University of Illinois Press
Imprint:   University of Illinois Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.50cm
ISBN:  

9780252083914


ISBN 10:   0252083911
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   30 July 2018
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

Table of Contents

Reviews

This is a magisterial book, required reading for anyone seriously interested in the recent history or future of journalism. . . . Virtually every chapter has multiple insights worth consideration on their own, and it will, as important books do, generate future scholarship of note. --Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly Far-reaching in its scope and provocative in its claims, this is a work of brilliant originality. --Stephen Coleman, co-author of The Media and the Public: Them and Us in Media Discourse Barnhurst's focus on the forms of news across media in the last century and this one is welcome and fresh. It is closely argued, often subtle and always interesting in its overall hypotheses. . . . It is thoughtful, seasoned and intellectually ambitious work. --Media History This book merits serious attention and informed appreciation from multiple sets of readers. --Journal of Communication Ambitious and fascinating... A worthy invitation to further research and discussion about the role of journalism in society. --International Journal of Communication With unparalleled scholarly precision spanning more than 200 years, Kevin Barnhurst chronicles the tumultuous evolution and revolution of news--how it's created and consumed. Through his panoramic lens, Barnhurst reveals a macro and micro focus on why today's newspapers are thinner, broadcast sound-bites shorter, and news often skeletal on the facts, the result of technology developing shorter attention spans. Spoiler alert, Mister Pulitzer and the Spider leaves us with a glimmer of hope. --Roberta Baskin, award-winning investigative journalist


Over the years, I've found few scholars whose work is as original, insightful, or readable as Kevin Barnhurst's. Mister Pulitzer and the Spider exceeds even that lofty expectation. Barnhurst's story of how the hierarchy and meaning of reporters' five Ws have changed since the late 1800s explains more fully how the news has shaped society, and been shaped by it, than any book I've read. If your nightstand, classroom, or personal library has room for only one book on journalism, make it this one.--Thomas E. Patterson, author of Informing the News: The Need for Knowledge-Based Journalism With unparalleled scholarly precision spanning more than 200 years, Kevin Barnhurst chronicles the tumultuous evolution and revolution of news--how it's created and consumed. Through his panoramic lens, Barnhurst reveals a macro and micro focus on why today's newspapers are thinner, broadcast sound-bites shorter, and news often skeletal on the facts, the result of technology developing shorter attention spans. Spoiler alert, Mister Pulitzer and the Spider leaves us with a glimmer of hope. --Roberta Baskin, award-winning investigative journalist Everyone has a theory about what's gone wrong with the news business. Kevin Barnhurst's explanation is original, elegantly presented, and potentially useful both to journalists and to citizens trying to decide which version of the news is worth paying attention to. --James Fallows, author of Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy


Kevin Barnhurst's tour of a century of American news draws on an imaginative blend of empirical content analysis and cultural criticism. Mister Pulitzer and the Spider explores how news evolved from the realism of storytelling to the modernism of interpretation and is full of interesting surprises for anyone who cares about the future of journalism in the Internet age. --David Nord, author of Communities of Journalism: A History of American Newspapers and Their Readers Far-reaching in its scope and provocative in its claims, this is a work of brilliant originality. --Stephen Coleman, co-author of The Media and the Public: Them and Us in Media Discourse Over the years, I've found few scholars whose work is as original, insightful, or readable as Kevin Barnhurst's. Mister Pulitzer and the Spider exceeds even that lofty expectation. Barnhurst's story of how the hierarchy and meaning of reporters' five Ws have changed since the late 1800s explains more fully how the news has shaped society, and been shaped by it, than any book I've read. If your nightstand, classroom, or personal library has room for only one book on journalism, make it this one. --Thomas E. Patterson, author of Informing the News: The Need for Knowledge-Based Journalism Kevin Barnhurst's methodical analysis of the forms in which journalistic expression has developed deserves study by anyone interested in public knowledge in an age of expanding communication technology. --Bill Kovach, co-author of The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect Ambitious and fascinating... A worthy invitation to further research and discussion about the role of journalism in society. --International Journal of Communication With unparalleled scholarly precision spanning more than 200 years, Kevin Barnhurst chronicles the tumultuous evolution and revolution of news--how it's created and consumed. Through his panoramic lens, Barnhurst reveals a macro and micro focus on why today's newspapers are thinner, broadcast sound-bites shorter, and news often skeletal on the facts, the result of technology developing shorter attention spans. Spoiler alert, Mister Pulitzer and the Spider leaves us with a glimmer of hope. --Roberta Baskin, award-winning investigative journalist Ambitious and fascinating A worthy invitation to further research and discussion about the role of journalism in society. --International Journal of Communication With unparalleled scholarly precision spanning more than 200 years, Kevin Barnhurst chronicles the tumultuous evolution and revolution of news--how it's created and consumed. Through his panoramic lens, Barnhurst reveals a macro and micro focus on why today's newspapers are thinner, broadcast sound-bites shorter, and news often skeletal on the facts, the result of technology developing shorter attention spans. Spoiler alert, Mister Pulitzer and the Spider leaves us with a glimmer of hope. --Roberta Baskin, award-winning investigative journalist Everyone has a theory about what's gone wrong with the news business. Kevin Barnhurst's explanation is original, elegantly presented, and potentially useful both to journalists and to citizens trying to decide which version of the news is worth paying attention to. --James Fallows, author of Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy With unparalleled scholarly precision spanning more than 200 years, Kevin Barnhurst chronicles the tumultuous evolution and revolution of news--how it's created and consumed. Through his panoramic lens, Barnhurst reveals a macro and micro focus on why today's newspapers are thinner, broadcast sound-bites shorter, and news often skeletal on the facts, the result of technology developing shorter attention spans. Spoiler alert, Mister Pulitzer and the Spider leaves us with a glimmer of hope. --Roberta Baskin, award-winning investigative journalist


Author Information

Kevin G. Barnhurst was Chair of Communication in the Digital Era at the University of Leeds and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His books include Seeing the Newspaper, The Form of News: A History, and Media Queered: Visibility and Its Discontents.  

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