From Cronkite to Colbert: The Evolution of Broadcast News (Media and Power) - Hardcover

Geoffrey D. Baym

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1594515530 ISBN 13: 9781594515538

Publisher: Paradigm Publishers, 2009

Synopsis

In a time when increasing numbers of people are tuning out the nightly news and media consumption is falling, the late-night comedians have become some of the most important newscasters in the country. From Cronkite to Colbert explains why. It examines an historical path that begins at the height of the network age with Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow, when the evening news was considered the authoritative record of the day's events and forged our assumptions about what the news is, or should be. The book then winds its way through the breakdown of that paradigm of real news and into its reinvention in the unlikely form of such popularized shows as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. From Cronkite to Colbert makes the case that rather than fake news, those shows should be understood as a new kind of journalism, one that has the potential to save the news and reinvigorate the conversation of democracy in today's society.

About this title

About the Author

Geoffrey Baym is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has written numerous journal articles and book chapters on the topics of popular culture and communication as well as political communication and will be publishing Media Theory, co-authored with James A. Anderson, in 2010 (Sage). In the past he has worked as a newswriter, reporter, and researcher for such channels and magazines as the CBS Network News, Catalyst Magazine, KSL Television, and The Tucson Citizen.

Edition details

• Publisher: Paradigm Publishers
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1594515530
• ISBN 13: 9781594515538
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224