Cultural Meanings of News
A Text-Reader
- Daniel A. Berkowitz - University of Iowa, USA
Consider news—as the product of a culture
What is news? What does news tell us about the culture and the society that produces and consumes it? This book provides a fresh examination of news production from a cultural perspective, moving beyond what was once called "sociology of news" and toward the globally-broader, culturally-based concept of "journalism studies."
Key Features
- Twenty-three original and contemporary articles—encompassing the intrinsic cultures of print, broadcast, and online media—are grouped in six thematically cohesive sets.
- The articles are presented chronologically to allow the reader to follow the exchange of ideas between authors over time.
- Berkowitz looks at news globally, helping the student look beyond his or her own cultural context to that of many other societies.
- A comprehensive framework helps to thoughtfully present this cultural study of news. Berkowitz opens and closes the text with a cultural perspective on news and hints on applying this perspective to emerging news situations; each section also contains an introduction that highlight connections between the articles.
Intended Audience
Cultural Meanings of News: A Text-Reader is ideal for a wide range of courses in any journalism studies curriculum, including Media and Society, Sociology of News, Media Criticism, and Popular Culture and Mass Media. This text may also be used as a companion to Berkowitz's Social Meaning of News: A Text-Reader, which addresses the sociological approach to news.
Excellent work on the cultural interpretation and dynamic of news reporting and consumption
This is a very good book that offers an overarching picture of global perspectives in journalism. Recommended for undergraduates as well as postgraduate students of international journalism.
The person who has to make the decision with me would not approve the book. I am looking for a supplemental text.
Good text, and a useful selection of readings, good for students researching assignments
The book is interesting and provides a lot of insights in the cultural aspects of news and newsrooms. But it is not really relevant for the course for which it was a good candidate. I will consider it for a future course with more relevant content.
It is a very sharp and very useful selection of texts regarding the cultural approach to journalism studies. Together with the previous text-reader prepared by Dan Berkowitz ("Social Meaning of News"), it gives the students a rich and comprehensive set of perspectives on this field.
A great selection of key texts needed when wanting to understand how and why culture and news is interlinked. It is great now to have a book which puts all these texts together, and relates them to each other. This book will be essential reading for my class in Journalism & Society.
I am going to add this as recommended reading to both a second year Journalism course but also guide dissertation students specialising in this area because it's such a good way in to ground students in the thinking and evolution of the research done in this field - the thematic divisions are very balanced.
An effective guide on how to place news in a cultural context.
Sage College Publishing
