Mister Pulitzer and the Spider
ebook ∣ Modern News from Realism to the Digital · The History of Media and Communication
By Kevin G Barnhurst
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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.
| Cover Title Copyright Contents Preface Part 1. News Pursued Modernism from Machine to Digital Times 1. Industrial News Became Modern 2. Stories Only Seemed Shorter 3. Longer News Turned Elite Part 2. "Who"—People Disappeared as News Expanded 4. Groups Supplanted Persons 5. Authorities Replaced Others 6. News Gained Status but Lost Touch Part 3. "What"—Events, the Basic Stuff of News, Declined 7. Events Dwindled in Print Stories 8. The "What" Waned in Broadcast News 9. Modern Events Resumed Online Part 4. "Where"—Locations for News Grew More Remote 10. Local Lost Ground to Distant News 11. Newscasters Appeared Closer 12. News Traded Place for Digital Space Part 5. "When"—The Now of News Pursued Modernism 13. The Press Adopted Linear Time 14. Newscasters Seemed More Hurried 15. News Online Reentered Modern Time Part 6. "Why"—Against all Odds, Interpretation Advanced 16. The Press Grew More Interpretive 17. Broadcast News Became Less Episodic 18. Online News Reverted to Sense-Making Part 7. News Transformed: So What and Now What? 19. Social Values Enabled Change 20. Modernism Exposed the Flaws of News 21. Realism Could Rekindle Hope Notes Bibliography Index |"Ambitious and fascinating... A worthy invitation to further research and discussion about the role of journalism in society."—International Journal of Communication
"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 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
|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.
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.
| Cover Title Copyright Contents Preface Part 1. News Pursued Modernism from Machine to Digital Times 1. Industrial News Became Modern 2. Stories Only Seemed Shorter 3. Longer News Turned Elite Part 2. "Who"—People Disappeared as News Expanded 4. Groups Supplanted Persons 5. Authorities Replaced Others 6. News Gained Status but Lost Touch Part 3. "What"—Events, the Basic Stuff of News, Declined 7. Events Dwindled in Print Stories 8. The "What" Waned in Broadcast News 9. Modern Events Resumed Online Part 4. "Where"—Locations for News Grew More Remote 10. Local Lost Ground to Distant News 11. Newscasters Appeared Closer 12. News Traded Place for Digital Space Part 5. "When"—The Now of News Pursued Modernism 13. The Press Adopted Linear Time 14. Newscasters Seemed More Hurried 15. News Online Reentered Modern Time Part 6. "Why"—Against all Odds, Interpretation Advanced 16. The Press Grew More Interpretive 17. Broadcast News Became Less Episodic 18. Online News Reverted to Sense-Making Part 7. News Transformed: So What and Now What? 19. Social Values Enabled Change 20. Modernism Exposed the Flaws of News 21. Realism Could Rekindle Hope Notes Bibliography Index |"Ambitious and fascinating... A worthy invitation to further research and discussion about the role of journalism in society."—International Journal of Communication
"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 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
|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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