A necessity for the professional journalist's library, "Journalism: State of the Art" will prove a valuable resource for the student journalist as well. This book summarizes some 200 media studies many from the most prestigious journal in the trade, "Journalism Quarterly." In a paraphrased-synthesis format, and using informal terms, the author arranges some of the most interesting studies of the 1980s into eight subject headings including: Ethics Law, and the Journalist; Advertising in the 1980s; Polling and Precision Journalism; and Predictors of Readership and Viewship.

For many years...

This book looks at the news media's portrayal of reality and seeks answers as to why this portrayal often falls short of reality itself. Jim Willis examines the factors that contribute to the journalist's often faulty perception of reality, factors that are beyond the immediate control of the reporter: errant sources, competitive influences, the embedding process of storytelling, marketing's influence on the news, and the structure of news stories. The book stresses that the reporting process is more difficult than most critics and reporters realize, and points out that the best reporters...

This text examines the startling and rapidly changing developments in media technology, especially as they affect journalism and the news media. We now stand at the threshold of a revolution in the news and entertainment media, and those media as we know them today may soon cease to exist. Whereas it had always been a simple matter to distinguish between newspapers, broadcast television, cable television, motion pictures, telephones, and computers, those distinctions are quickly blurring as a new universal media looms on the horizon. Here Jim Willis examines the new multimedia--and the...

Health and safety risk issues such as AIDS, hazardous waste disposal, airline disasters, and health care policy frequently dominate the news and require a new level of sensitivity and expertise on the part of journalists. This volume focuses on a study of the trends in risk reporting and offers guidelines on how to report the dangers of these risks more accurately. It also examines the ethical implications of reporting risks to the public. This work will be of interest to those studying communication, specifically in the areas of ethics in journalism and public health and medical...

Health and safety risk issues such as AIDS, hazardous waste disposal, airline disasters, and health care policy frequently dominate the news and require a new level of sensitivity and expertise on the part of journalists. This volume focuses on a study of the trends in risk reporting and offers guidelines on how to report the dangers of these risks more accurately. It also examines the ethical implications of reporting risks to the public. This work will be of interest to those studying communication, specifically in the areas of ethics in journalism and public health and medical...

Willis examines the many orientations and perspectives of reporters that gather and present the news of the day. Debunking the notion that there are limited perspectives journalists may use, Willis examines up to 15 different orientations that reporters bring to their work. These perspectives run the gamut, from the traditional approach of distancing oneself completely from events and people involved to becoming part of the story's fabric to ascertain the story's true essence.

Willis also suggests that, for many stories, it is wholly appropriate for journalists to feel what a...

Willis' almost total textbook analysis of today's newspaper makes "Surviving in the Newspaper Business" precisely what it claims to be: A how-to guide to newspaper management in the 1980s and beyond . . . a set of unified principles for successful management.' It explains the supervision and organization of each department and stresses the importance of keeping the paper responsive to the needs of its readers, advertisers and, somewhat surprisingly, even its employees. Willis talks about advertising, circulation and marketing strategies and how to deal with competition from TV, the...

The start of the 1990s saw the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany into one new nation that would be a formidable economic force around the world. But to many Americans educated by the news and entertainment media, the image of Germany remained a holdover from World War II and the Holocaust. When the American media were not presenting an outdated, jackbooted view of Germany, they were portraying it as a country epitomizing the world's Communist/Capitalist struggle. For three decades the American news and entertainment media presented the image of Germany as being a...