Public Journalism and Political Knowledge

This book is a fresh and interesting review of the practice and impact of public journalism. Its valuable case studies and critical analyses deserve wide readership among social scientists, journalists, and communications professionals. -- John C. Green, University of Akron Public journalism is an important experiment in applying social responsibility theory to the information age, and attempts to assess it deserve attention. This well-executed volume provides a solid update. -- Philip Meyer, University of North Carolina Offering an unusual diversity of accessible essays and authors, who include news editors, political scientists, and mass communication scholars, this volume makes a singular contribution to the literature. * CHOICE * Offers an eclectic approach to evaluating the contribution of news media to civic life. It encourages a broad view of journalism as just one of the many institutions that help to construct the political culture. The collection of essays covers the origins, practice, impact, and future of public journalism. * Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly * Bringing together a diverse group of academic observers and journalistic practitioners, this volume presents a thoughtful introduction to the successes, failures, and controversies that have accompanied the public journalism movement. * Press/Politics * What does it take to make democracy work and what should be asked of the press? To center a movement around a question is not to deny that the question needs an answer. And there are answers found through these pages. . . . [This book] brings together professors with a deep grasp of their scholarly fields, journalism educators with time to study the experiment, and working journalists with the benefit of experience. -- Jay Rosen, from the foreword

In this book, leading journalists, communication scholars, and political scientists assess the state of contemporary public journalism, looking at its origins, the arguments for and against public journalism, and the state of political knowledge. Addressing theoretical and academic notions of public journalism-in conjunction with the possible role of the modern university-this timely volume explores the potential of public journalism to help elevate the public's political knowledge.