Media Smackdown: Deconstructing the News and the Future of Journalism

Journalism is in crisis. The rise of the internet through social media and citizen journalism and the financial crisis of 2008 have taken their toll. Thousands of reporters and editors have been laid off; nightly news on the major networks is losing close to one million viewers a year; newspapers have seen declining ad revenues and circulation figures cut in half; and the old business model for newspapers based on advertising and subscriptions appears to be collapsing.
Filling the void on The Right is commentary, punditry and even bigotry, while Progressive media engages in advocacy, agenda-setting and even self-censorship. It may all have an audience, but it's not journalism in the professional sense: a commitment to objectivity and a separation of news and opinion. Media Smackdown devotes two chapters to a thorough and even-handed look at charges and counter-charges of bias in the media. At this important juncture in the evolution of journalism, Media Smackdown takes a close look at the history of the news media in America in order to address the historical, legal, economic, theoretical, and political issues that affect the practice as well as the changing face and future of journalism.