HARDLY ADying ART: THE FLOURISHING OF PRINT NEWS IN LITERARY JOURNALISM BOOKS

238 Pages·2007·3.13 MB·English

HARDLY A DYING ART:
THE FLOURISHING OF PRINT NEWS IN LITERARY JOURNALISM BOOKS

A Thesis
submitted to the Faculty of the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
of Georgetown University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of
Master of Arts
in Communication, Culture and Technology

By

Katherine Emily Aberbach, B.A.

Washington, DC
April 17, 2007
Copyright © 2007 by Katherine Emily Aberbach

All Rights Reserved

ii
HARDLY A DYING ART:
THE FLOURISHING OF PRINT NEWS IN LITERARY JOURNALISM BOOKS

Katherine Emily Aberbach, B.A.

Thesis Advisor: Diana Owen, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT

While most media scholars are turning their attention toward virtual means of
communication, few individuals or research organizations have taken notice of new
developments related to physical forms of news in print. The increasing popularity of
socially and politically relevant literary journalism books like Barbara Ehrenreich’s
Nickel and Dimed (2001) and Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003) is a
journalistic trend that has been largely viewed from a literary perspective—and only
minimally examined by news media scholars or experts.
This thesis seeks to bridge the chasm between literary examinations of literary
journalism books and scholarship on contemporary mass media, by highlighting socially
and politically relevant literary journalism books as a form of powerful and influential
communications media. Though these books contain literary and subjective elements like
first-person perspective, they also share a number of important characteristics with
modern-day mainstream print news, making them a hybrid media form.
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Through an examination of bibliographic, textual and literary characteristics of
Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed and Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, I
demonstrate that the books’ definitions and functions are intrinsically connected to those
of traditional American print news. In addition, I utilize the media effects theory and
methodology of “uses and gratifications” in order to guide and analyze original focus
group and survey research. This approach enables a unique comparison between
individuals’ understandings of and reactions to Nickel and Dimed and Mountains Beyond
Mountains with their uses and gratifications of mainstream print news media. Ultimately,
this thesis not only provides evidence that socially and politically relevant literary
journalism books represent a flourishing genre of print news, but also identifies
characteristics and qualities of the books that may be valuable for future scholarship.

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Acknowledgments
I owe many thanks to everyone who has helped contribute to this thesis and to my
completion of the Communication, Culture and Technology program at Georgetown
University.
First, I’d like to thank Professor Diana Owen, who has given invaluable advice,
comments and encouragement throughout the entire time I have worked on this thesis. I
would also like to thank Professor Michael Macovski for his assistance and enthusiasm as
my second reader. Thanks also to Garrison LeMasters for videotaping both of the focus
groups used in this thesis.
Thanks to all of my classmates, coworkers and friends in Georgetown’s
Communication, Culture and Technology program and at the Center for New Designs in
Learning and Scholarship, for inspiring me to work with purpose and passion.
Darren Favello and Mara Dougherty deserve special thanks for contributing to
both my studies and my study breaks.
Last but not least, I can’t thank my parents and sister enough for their constant
support and encouragement throughout my entire educational career. I would also like to
acknowledge and thank my late grandmother, whose enthusiasm about all of my
academic and professional endeavors meant so much to me.
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Table of Contents

Index of Tables.................................................................................................viii
Index of Figures......................................................................................................ix
Chapter 1. Introduction......................................................................................1
Outline of Chapters...................................................................... 11
Chapter 2. Literature Review...........................................................................12
Objectivity and the Development of Mainstream American News 13
The Indefinable Nature of Modern-Day News........................ 22
Recent History of Literary Journalism Books............................... 25
Traits and Terms..................................................................... 33
Chapter 3. Hypotheses, Theoretical Frameworks and Methodologies...............38
Textual, Literary and Cultural Studies Approaches....................... 39
Uses and Gratifications Theory..................................................... 46
Relevant Findings from Past Studies....................................... 51
Designing An Original Study.................................................. 54
Chapter 4. Book Histories...............................................................................60
“Bibliographic Codes”.................................................................. 61
Social and Cultural Reading Contexts........................................... 64
Readers’ Social and Political Activism.........................................69
Chapter 5. Textual and Literary Analysis.........................................................74
Similarities and Connections........................................................ 76
Relevance, Purpose and Impressions of Objectivity................ 76
Historical Ties........................................................................ 81
Differences Between the Books and Mainstream Print Media....... 86
Subjective Points of View....................................................... 86
Entertainment.........................................................................88
Voice...................................................................................... 90
Chapter 6. Uses and Gratifications of Literary Journalism Books....................94
Uses of Nickel and Dimed and Mountains Beyond Mountains...... 96
Informational and Educational Uses ....................................... 98
Social Uses............................................................................102
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Vicarious Uses.......................................................................108
Other Uses: Value Confirmation and Political Identification..114
Gratifications of Nickel and Dimed and Mountains Beyond
Mountains...................................................................................116
Vicarious Gratifications.........................................................118
Informational and Educational Gratifications.........................121
Social Gratifications..............................................................133
Gratifications Evidenced by Behavioral Changes...................136
Chapter 7. Comparing Uses and Gratifications of Mainstream Print News
with Literary Journalism Books...................................................142
Identifying “Mainstream Print News”..........................................143
Uses of Mainstream Print News...................................................145
Informational and Educational Uses ......................................148
Social Uses............................................................................152
Vicarious Uses.......................................................................153
Other Uses: Value Confirmation (or Rejection) and Political
Identification.........................................................................153
Gratifications of Mainstream Print News.....................................160
Informational and Educational Gratifications.........................162
Social Gratifications..............................................................166
Gratifications Evidenced by Behavioral Changes...................168
Vicarious Gratifications and the Role of Authorial Perspective
..............................................................................................172
Chapter 8. Conclusion...................................................................................182
Appendix A. Focus Groups..............................................................................190
Appendix B. Literary Journalism Survey..........................................................195
Appendix C. Copyright Permission .................................................................210
Works Cited.....................................................................................................212
Works Consulted..............................................................................................225

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Index of Tables

Table 1.1: Characteristics of socially and politically relevant literary journalism books...3

Table 6.1: Individuals’ uses or “expectations” of Nickel and Dimed and Mountains
Beyond Mountains.................................................................................................97

Table 6.2: Individuals’ practical reasons for reading Nickel and Dimed and/or Mountains
Beyond Mountains...............................................................................................103

Table 6.3: Individuals’ gratifications or “experiences reading” Nickel and Dimed and
Mountains Beyond Mountains.............................................................................117

Table 6.4: Changes in political or social beliefs or actions after reading Nickel and Dimed
or Mountains Beyond Mountains.........................................................................127

Table 7.1: Individuals’ uses or “expectations” of mainstream print media...................147

Table 7.2: Individuals’ gratifications or “characterizations” of their experiences reading
mainstream print news.........................................................................................161

Table 8.1: Revised characteristics of socially and politically relevant literary journalism
books...................................................................................................................187

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Index of Figures

Figure 3.1: “Three audience research traditions compared”...........................................45

Figure 6.1: Vicarious uses and gratifications of Nickel and Dimed and Mountains Beyond
Mountains...........................................................................................................119

Figure 6.2: Informational gratifications (evidenced by knowledge gained) of Nickel and
Dimed and Mountains Beyond Mountains............................................................122

Figure 6.3: Social uses and gratifications of Nickel and Dimed and Mountains Beyond
Mountains...........................................................................................................134

Figure 7.1: Print media most commonly used for news and political information........144

Figure 7.2: Informational/educational uses and gratifications of mainstream print news
compared.............................................................................................................163

Figure 7.3: Informational gratifications (evidenced by knowledge gained) of mainstream
print news............................................................................................................165

Figure 7.4: Behavioral and cognitive “changes” prompted by, or gratifications obtained
from, print news media........................................................................................169

Figure 7.5: Opinions of the first-person perspective in literary journalism books and
mainstream print news.........................................................................................174
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Chapter 1. Introduction
In its “comprehensive” annual review of the “State of the News Media,” the
Project for Excellence in Journalism (2006) suggests that American journalism is
undergoing “a seismic transformation.” As digital and online media becomes more
popular and accessible, the lines between news media producers and consumers, and
journalists and citizens, are becoming increasingly fuzzy. Simultaneously, traditional
forms of “old media,” such as newspapers and television, are encountering financial
straits and declining public trust. “Scan the headlines of 2005,” the report posits, “and
one question seems inevitable: Will we recall this as the year when journalism in print
began to die?” (p. 4).
Certainly, newspaper journalism—one of the most traditional forms of print
news—has seen better days. In 2005, many of America’s leading newspapers,
including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer,
faced diminishing circulation and stock prices and were forced to shrink newsroom
staffs (p. 4). Major magazines like U.S. News and Newsweek also fared poorly, posting
significant drops in revenues (p. 24). Yet, despite the signs that may seem to presage
newspapers’ and magazines’ “early extinction” (p. 4), not every form of print news is
faring poorly. In fact, one form of print media is currently experiencing tremendous
popularity and prestige, and deserves to be viewed as a powerful medium of
communication: literary journalism books.
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