Michael Schudson

We know providing a diversified collection of media technologies is expensive. Funding is often obtained through participant admissions/ subscriptions, contributions, or through advertising and sponsorships.

Schudson opens this book by concentrating on the importance of professional journalism where verifiable facts are gathered to present a story with fair-mindedness. He goes on to provide a collection of essays that cover a range of issues that media faces and has faced noting Walter Lippman's contribution as a prophetic analyst of modern media.

In dissecting the term professional journalist’s one would expect that being fair-minded idealists they would have to look highly at the very nature of their business where discussions and criticism is one of its primary functions, and that leads many of us to see how skepticism can make things seem blurry.

Around my neck of the woods, local media organizations often have a beat reporter that digs up stories that are geared towards those of us who are curious about things in our area. The reporter's focus on everyday life such as business, crimes, courts, education, politics, religion, and sports.

We know many people outside of professional journalists, in this day and age, carry a smartphone with the ability to obtain and release anything on social media. In my community alone, it is apparent, people in a quest to get the news out to their neighbor do not do any fact-checking. They hear something and put it out there on social media. Later, when it's found to be incorrect, they apologize, or they don’t.

While citizen journalism distributed by some is disturbing, I have also gained viable information from those posting on social media such as being directed away from the scene of an accident thus saving emergency personnel having to inform and redirect me.

For the most part, this book appears to hold an optimistic view of the future of professional journalism and a realistic view of how many of us may be more likely to be inspired by fear than hope, continuing the cycle of news programming hierarchy where 'if it bleeds - it leads'.

It seems you can’t turn on the radio or television today without escaping the term Fake News. Schudson explores how this affects those in the business who are striving to be objective by keeping a neutral and unbiased manner in a highly competitive field.

It’s obvious professional journalists, now more than ever, must do their best analysis of facts and put aside their political and personal viewpoints while recognizing there is no perfect fact gathering system. Perhaps the best thing we can do to assist is to provide them with accurate information.

I received a copy of this book from Neil de Cort, at Polity Press, via book publicist Lucas Jones.… (mais)