Customer Reviews
The rise and rise of 'churnalism' - By: N. de Cort, 08 Jul 2008 
Today newspapers are run purely for profit. This means that numbers of reporters are being cut. This means that they can't get out into the world & build contacts that will help them unearth stories. This means that, by & large, they have time to just sit at a desk & recycle (sometimes just plain re-use) stories from:
1. News agencies, who feel it's not their job to interpret anything, merely report it, so no fact checking. This stuff goes straight into papers & broadcast media without being checked.
2. PR. PR agencies who work for organisations send out press releases, which by definition will not be fair or balanced. And that goes straight into the news too. Interestingly, there's also the issue of 'Astroturf' groups: supposedly 'grass-roots' movements & organisations that produce 'independent' reports, except they're no such thing; they're just a front for big business to put out press releases from an apparently independent source. And it's not just global warming or the millennium bug where we're being misled; there are apparently Astroturf organisations sending us reports, towing the government line, from Iraq! SO next time you hear about the publication of a report from some think tank, ask yourself who's paying for that report?
3. Each other. If one paper has picked up on a story, rather than (a) check it or (b) get left behind, they recycle the same stuff. It seems that each paper goes through every other paper checking for stories.
Anyone who reads a paper or listens to the newsin any way shape or form should read this book.
Who stole our journalism? - By: Mr Me, 02 Jun 2008 The answer to that question & many others you didn't think you needed to know are allin this fantastic book. It is both illumintaing & at the same time depressing to realise that even the most trusted brands of journalism have become victim, like so much of our media, to the forces of money-making, fast-turnaround & nonsense PR. This book is an startling education for anyone who reads or watches 'news', not just those connected to the industry.
Brave Man - By: Mr. N. T. Baxter, 20 May 2008 Nick Davies must be a brave man... He has launched a devastating attack on not only the state of modern journalism, but also on the basic integrity of many of those involvedin the profession. And this from a major paper journalist who must now have made a lot of enemies within his industry.
I'm sure you have noticed how very similar versions of the same stories are posted online by apparently independent & well funded news organisations - especiallyin America for news outside the US. This book explains why, & how the facts of these clone stories are often unchecked by the trusted organisations putting them into the public domain.
The book also covers the pernicious effects & influence of PR & also, perhaps most depressingly, the outright lying of major newspapers who are left barely challenged by the Press Complaints Commission & whom average people cannot afford to defend themselves against.
All of it seems to root back to money. Selling more papers through sensationalism, pandering to racism & lying; cost cutting exercises that have reduced the number of journalists available to cover an ever increasing number of stories, leaving them without the time to check their sources properly.
Very depressing, but a fantastic inoculation against the effects of this 'disease'. The book will help you take a more critical view of what you read, see & hear & understand the motivations that lie behind much of the news we are fed. The final summary provides some ideas about where good journalism can still be found - basically it exists where advertising does not - or where reporting is guided (or protected) by highly ethical 'old school' editorial policies.
Generalisations, deletions, distortions - By: Dr. Nicholas P. G. Davies, 13 May 2008 I'm partway through this book. Enjoying it thoroughly. I'm learning a lot from it.
I used to think journalists were lazy & would just publish any rubbish, or government spin they were fed.
I now know that Phil Space is the great journalistic archetype, & that he or she will indeed publish any rubbish sent their way. More usefully I now know why they have to do this, & the pressures of time & resource they are forced to operate under.
The great themes of capitalism- destroy professions, deskill, reduce terms & conditions, demand more for less, pretend it's all getting better, confuse change with progress, display themselves.
Sadly as consumers we do not demand enough of our newspapers so the grocer proprietors get away with churnalism, & a lower quality product.
This book is excellent, & it helps me understand the pressures journalists are working under. We have the connected world wide web but papers are getting narrowerin their sourcing & coverage. Something's wrong, & maybe the blogs are the way out of this.
Whatever the answer this book will help you understand the problem.
Required Reading - By: D. P. Jacob, 13 May 2008 I don't think I will ever quite be the same after reading this ground breaking book. Mr Davies has written an entirely original work which is good to read, intellectually rigorous, & meticulously balanced.Like Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile says 'I guess I stopped believingin the early morning news'. Now I have read Flat Earth News I know why. The most telling aspect,in my opinion is that one learns that journalism, like so many other aspects of modern day working life, has been degraded entirely by the so-called good of unbridled & counter-productive capitalism. Thoroughly recommended.
