The public, James Carey famously wrote, is the ?god-term? of journalism, ?the term without which the entire enterprise fails to make sense.? In the last thirty years, scholars have made great progress in understanding just what this means.

In this much-needed new book, leading scholar David Ryfe takes readers on a journey through the literature that explores this most important of relationships. He discusses how and why journalism first emerged in the United States, and why journalism everywhere shares a family resemblance but is nowhere practised in precisely the same way. He...

The public, James Carey famously wrote, is the ?god-term? of journalism, ?the term without which the entire enterprise fails to make sense.? In the last thirty years, scholars have made great progress in understanding just what this means.

In this much-needed new book, leading scholar David Ryfe takes readers on a journey through the literature that explores this most important of relationships. He discusses how and why journalism first emerged in the United States, and why journalism everywhere shares a family resemblance but is nowhere practised in precisely the same way. He...