New Media, Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age

Front Cover
Natalie Fenton
SAGE, Sep 26, 2009 - Social Science - 232 pages
Have new communications technologies revitalised the public sphere, or become the commercial tool for an increasingly un-public, undemocratic news media? Are changing journalistic practices damaging the nature of news, or are new media allowing journalists to do more journalism and to engage the public more effectively?

With massive changes in the media environment and its technologies, interrogating the nature of news journalism is one of the most urgent tasks we face in defining the public interest today. The implications are serious, not just for the future of the news, but also for the practice of democracy.

In a thorough empirical investigation of journalistic practices in different news contexts, New Media, Old News explores how technological, economic and social changes have reconfigured news journalism, and the consequences of these transformations for a vibrant democracy in our digital age. The result is a piercing examination of why understanding news journalism matters now more than ever. It is essential reading for students and scholars of journalism and new media.

 

Contents

Drowning or Waving? New Media Journalism and Democracy
3
Part II New Media and News in Context
17
1 Technology Foretold
19
2 The Political Economy of the New News Environment
35
3 An Ethical Deficit? Accountability Norms and the Material Conditions of Contemporary Journalism
51
Part III New Media and News in Practice
69
New Media and Organizational Change in the BBC
71
New Bottles
87
Virtual Iron Cages in the New Culture of Capitalism
121
8 New Online News Sources and WriterGatherers
138
News from Everywhere
153
Part V New Media News Content and International Context
169
10 A New News Order? Online News Content Examined
171
International Considerations and Further Reflections
187
References
201
Index
219

6 Liberal Dreams and the Internet
102
Part IV New Media News Sources New Journalism?
119

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About the author (2009)

Natalie Fenton is a Professor of Media and Communications and Co-Head of the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is also Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy. She has published widely on issues relating to civil society, radical politics, digital media, news and journalism and is particularly interested in issues of political transformation, radical media reform and re-imagining democracy. She was Vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the campaign group Hacked Off for 7 years and is currently Chair of the UK Media Reform Coalition. Her books include New Media: Old News: Journalism and Democracy in the Digital Age (Sage, 2010); Misunderstanding the Internet co-authored with James Curran and Des Freedman (Routledge, 2016); Digital, Political, Radical (2016, Polity); Media, Democracy and Social Change: Re-imagining Political Communications co-authored with Des Freedman, Gholam Khiabany and Aeron Davis (Sage, 2020) and The Media Manifesto co-authored with Lina Des Freedman and Justin Schlosberg and Lina Dencik (Polity, 2020).

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