The Public Journalism Movement in America: Evangelists in the Newsroom

The philosophy of public journalism, which has found converts in academia and in newsrooms nationwide, holds that traditional journalism is outmoded—values such as objectivity and detachment must give way to new values connecting journalists to their communities and committing them to a kind of reporting that will make public life go well. These new values, however, are not clearly defined, and even the main advocates of public journalism disagree on its meaning and purpose. This volume offers a thorough and devastating critique of public journalism by showing that its advocates have failed to diagnose what really ails American journalism and that their prescriptions for saving journalism are more likely to harm than to help the profession. After presenting the ideas and projects that characterize the major players in the movement, the author introduces the data from an extensive survey of newspaper editors and academics, as well as a comprehensive lexicon of public journalism.