Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nation's Journalism - Hardcover

Daly, Christopher B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1558499113 ISBN 13: 9781558499119

Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012

Synopsis

Today many believe that American journalism is in crisis, with traditional sources of news under siege from a failing business model, a resurgence of partisanship, and a growing expectation that all information ought to be free. In Covering America, Christopher B. Daly places the current crisis within a much broader historical context, showing how it is only the latest in a series of transitions that have required journalists to devise new ways of plying their trade.

Drawing on original research and synthesizing the latest scholarship, Daly traces the evolution of journalism in America from the early 1700s to the "digital revolution" of today. Analyzing the news business as a business, he identifies five major periods of journalism history, each marked by a different response to the recurrent conflicts that arise when a vital cultural institution is housed in a major private industry.

Throughout his narrative history Daly captures the ethos of journalism with engaging anecdotes, biographical portraits of key figures, and illuminating accounts of the coverage of major news events as well as the mundane realities of day-to-day reporting.

About this title

About the Author:

A veteran journalist, Christopher B. Daly teaches journalism and history at Boston University. He is coauthor of Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World, which won the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association and the Merle Curti Award of the Organization of American Historians.

For more information, please see Prof. Daly's website, http://www.coveringamerica.me/

Review:

"A comprehensive, fresh telling of an important dimension of American history. Covering America adds shape and new understanding to the intriguing stories many of us know as myths of origin, from Ben Franklin's escape from printer's devil servitude to biographies of such greats as David Halberstam and H. L. Mencken. Daly is skeptical enough to dig into the facts behind the legends, but happily he is not on a debunking crusade. His obvious faith in journalism as an honorable estate (as Louis Rubin calls it) and learned profession (as Robert E. Lee tried to envision it) comes through."―Douglas Cumming, author of The Southern Press: Literary Legacies and the Challenge of Modernity

"This is grand narrative as it should be―deftly balancing nuanced and consequential portraits of individual characters (Mencken, Luce, Hearst, Winchell, Lippmann) with compelling accounts of the big developments. . . . I learned much from it and I truly enjoyed it."―Bruce Schulman, author of The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics

"Essential reading for anyone who cares about American history, media, or culture. This is a great story about the entire tradition of journalistic storytelling, told smartly and thoroughly."―Susan Orlean, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend and The Orchid Thief

"In this scholarly yet readable volume, Daly presents a surprisingly spirited and detailed account of American journalism and the many ways in which the press has impacted the trajectory of American history, and vice versa. . . . Any history book runs the risk of being bland, but Daly peppers the text with amusing anecdotes and intriguing facts. In addition to the interesting stories, Daly makes many cogent arguments about what the press has meant to the country's shared history and identity."―Publishers Weekly

"Daly provides a lively, interesting review of journalism's many personalities, events and trends. It is an excellent work of history concerning the profession and business of journalism, filled with anecdotes and intriguing facts. It surely belongs on the shelves everywhere journalism is celebrated."―Bookviews

"A handful of vintage black-and-white photographs illustrate this meticulous , methodical, and absolutely invaluable recommendation especially for public and college library collections."―Midwest Book Review

"In Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nation's Journalism, Christopher B. Daly has written a masterful, meticulously researched work that should be celebrated by not just those in the field but every informed citizen. In this landmark account, he has brilliantly examined the economic, political and social forces that have shaped America's media since their beginnings 'as a tiny and timid affair conducted by a handful of people in a remote backwater of the great British Empire.' . . . A professor of journalism now at Boston University, Daly spent 10 years as an AP editor and reporter and a decade at The Washington Post before moving to academia. He knows his subject inside-out (as it were). He also knows how to write ― and the proof is this compelling, character-driven account filled, almost novelistically, with iconic, colorful and distinctly American characters."―Providence Journal

"The combination of the big business picture with the work of individuals makes for an interesting study of the United States through the lens of the mass media, an essential form of communication throughout American history."―The Historian

"This is a useful, very up-to-date one volume narrative summary of the story. . . . For students of the history of information, this is a welcome addition to the literature on who supplied many types of publications to the American public and how they functioned. It is a practical volume for both students of American history and for participants in American media, such as journalists, editors, and publishers. In the vernacular of today's media, it is also 'a good read.'"―Information & Culture

"The strength of Covering America is Daly's emphasis on story. In a genre awash in mind-numbing recitations of names and dates, Daly has pared matters down to their essentials and given his characters room to breathe. . . . But it is in Daly's attention to larger forces, including technology, that makes Covering America stand out."―Neiman Journalism Lab

"Daly has a knack for telling a good story. . . . [Readers] will realize, as Daly makes clear, that the change [to digital newspapers], like other changes before it, is not the end of journalism, but another phase in its history."―H-Net Reviews

"This engrossing, wide-ranging history of American journalism from the colonial era to the present makes a tremendous contribution to mass communication education by being that rarest kind of textbook―one that reads like literature instead of CliffsNotes."―Journalism & Mass Communication

"Journalism students will leave a class after reading Daly's book with a clear understanding of the methods and values of the field they will soon enter. They will also gain some confidence that journalism will continue even if paper and ink disappear."―Journalism History

"Daly indicates that although some media entities certainly will meet their demise, others will adapt and allow journalism to thrive in whatever new form it takes."―American Journalism

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1558499113
• ISBN 13: 9781558499119
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 576