In this Book
- Mister Pulitzer and the Spider: Modern News from Realism to the Digital
- Book
- 2016
- Published by: University of Illinois Press
- Series: The History of Communication
summary
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.
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.
Table of Contents
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- 1. Industrial News Became Modern
- pp. 3-12
- 2. Stories Only Seemed Shorter
- pp. 13-28
- 3. Longer News Turned Elite
- pp. 29-42
- 4. Groups Supplanted Persons
- pp. 45-53
- 5. Authorities Replaced Others
- pp. 54-63
- 6. News Gained Status but Lost Touch
- pp. 64-74
- 7. Events Dwindled in Print Stories
- pp. 77-85
- 9. Modern Events Resumed Online
- pp. 100-108
- 10. Local Lost Ground to Distant News
- pp. 111-120
- 11. Newscasters Appeared Closer
- pp. 121-129
- 12. News Traded Place for Digital Space
- pp. 130-138
- 13. The Press Adopted Linear Time
- pp. 141-150
- 14. Newscasters Seemed More Hurried
- pp. 151-160
- 15. News Online Reentered Modern Time
- pp. 161-168
- 16. The Press Grew More Interpretive
- pp. 171-180
- 17. Broadcast News Became Less Episodic
- pp. 181-190
- 18. Online News Reverted to Sense-Making
- pp. 191-202
- 19. Social Values Enabled Change
- pp. 205-213
- 20. Modernism Exposed the Flaws of News
- pp. 214-223
- 21. Realism Could Rekindle Hope
- pp. 224-234
- Bibliography
- pp. 261-280
Additional Information
ISBN
9780252098406
Related ISBN(s)
9780252040184, 9780252083914
MARC Record
OCLC
951434555
Pages
312
Launched on MUSE
2016-06-10
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2018