From Publishers Weekly
These are bad times for both the American press and American politics, observes Janeway in his broad overview of the linked machinery of politics and journalism. Hemorrhaging its own credibility, today's media establishment seems more embattled than ever. The same could be said of American politics: a disaffected public has traded confidence in democracy for jaded cynicism. Those two conditions add up to a recipe for disaster, writes Janeway, a former editor-in-chief at the Boston Globe who now directs the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. He argues that a confluence of forces in both the news business and politics has plunged America into a dark night of the soul, from which we are unlikely to awaken anytime soon. Sketching the jarring trajectory of our nation after such events as the Bay of Pigs debacle, Kennedy's assassination and, of course, Vietnam, Janeway plugs in other variables such as the consolidation of print and broadcast media and the insatiable appetite of 24-hour cable news. The upshot is that the quality most needed by journalists nowAa critical skepticism toward governmentAis being replaced by market research at newspapers driven more by the bottom line than a sense of civic duty. While Janeway's thesis is not strikingly original, those interested in how headlines are made will appreciate his analysis of the crumbling barrier between the newsroom and the boardroomAand the dismaying notion that serious journalism has itself become just one more niche market. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
"Politics in the United States today is almost universally disdained for falsity and shrillness. The media in the United States are widely condemned for bad practices and attitudes," writes Janeway in the opening sentence of this thoughtful analysis of the relationship among the press, the political process, and the public interest. Examining the reasons for this disdain, Janeway (journalism, Columbia Univ.), a former editor of the Boston Globe and the Atlantic Monthly, warns that Americans are in "a democratic crisis in a republic of denial." He focuses here on the print media but also looks at the impact that broadcast media (particularly round-the-clock coverage and "tabloid TV") have had on news delivery. He also describes questionable business practices that have eroded some media independence and integrity. Readable and well documented, this work is recommended for public libraries and highly recommended for political science and communication collections in academic libraries.AJill Ortner, SILS, SUNY at Buffalo
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
