Can Journalism Be Saved?: Rediscovering America's Appetite for News

184 Pages·2010·0.77 MB·English

by  Rachel Davis Mersey

Can Journalism Be Saved?
This page intentionally left blank
Can Journalism Be Saved?
Rediscovering America’s
Appetite for News
Rachel Davis Mersey
Copyright 2010 by Rachel Davis Mersey
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in
a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mersey, Rachel Davis, 1978–
Can journalism be saved? : rediscovering America’s appetite for news / Rachel
Davis Mersey.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-313-39208-5 (hard copy : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-39209-2
(ebook) 1. Journalism—United States—History—21st century.
2. Journalists —United States —History—21st century. I. Title.
PN4867.2.M47 2010
071'.309051— dc22 2010011356
ISBN: 978-0-313-39208-5
EISBN: 978-0-313-39209-2
14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook.
Visit www.abc-clio.com for details.
Praeger
An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC
ABC-CLIO, LLC
130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911
Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911
This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
To my husband, Jason, and my parents, Deirdre and Jack
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Part One Journalism and Democracy Are Dead 1
Chapter 1: A Brave New World of Journalism 3
Chapter 2: From Whence Journalists Came 19
Part Two The Individual Is Very Much Alive 35
Chapter 3: Audience Needs and Actions 37
Chapter 4: Why the Audience Does What It Does 55
Chapter 5: The Audience Already Has Control 71
Part Three A New Model of Journalism Is Born 87
Chapter 6: A New Framework 89
Chapter 7: Paying for It All 103
Chapter 8: Journalism Is Spelled with an “I” 125
viii Contents
Notes 135
Bibliography 145
Index 157
I
llustrations
Figures
3.1 Vincent and Basil’s typology of media uses and gratifi cations
among college students 43
3.2 Motivators and inhibitors of newspaper readership
developed by the Media Management Center and
the Readership Institute 45
3.3 Motivators and inhibitors of Web site usage developed
by the Media Management Center 47
4.1 Proposed relationship between sense of community and
media use 66
4.2 Proposed relationship between social identity and media use 69
6.1 Unsubstantiated relationship between sense of community
and media use 95
6.2 Relationship between identity and media 95
6.3 Relationship between identity and community 96
6.4 Identity-based model of journalism 96
Tables
3.1 Percentage of those expressing a great deal of confi dence
in the press, 1973–2008 52
4.1 Sense of community dimensions and predictors 65
7.1 A sample of experiences and specifi c use statements
related to the audience and local television news 116