Educator Spring 2011 — AEJMC Hot Topics

Book Review – Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity

May 11, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity. Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry (2010). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 374.

In late October 2010, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made an otherwise minor personnel move. The team cut tight end Jerramy Stevens, who had been picked up by police a few days earlier on drug charges. After reading Scoreboard, Baby, an account of a college football program out of control, one is left to wonder why it took so long for Stevens’ reckless behavior to catch up to him.

Book Review – The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism

May 11, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism. Stuart Allan (ed.) (2009). Abingdon, England: Routledge. pp. 704.

Stuart Allan’s weighty book is 56 chapters over 704 pages, and this bulk is a mixed blessing. The book includes numerous authors of prominence, but it also relies too much upon the reputation of its contributors. The back cover of the book states it is for “scholars and students,” but scholars are likely to find the chapters conservative and too familiar. The benefit of this book is precisely with that student audience, who will find many accessible insights into contemporary issues and can rely on the topic diversity as a resource for learning more about journalism.

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Filed Under: Educator Spring 2011, Reviews Tagged With: aejmc educator, Journalism, News, routledge, scholarship, Stuart Allan

Book Review[s] – The Obama Victory & Blogging the Political

May 11, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

The Obama Victory: How Media, Money, and Message Shaped the 2008 Election. Kate Kenski, Bruce Hardy, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson (2010). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 378.

Blogging the Political: Politics and Participation in a Networked Society. Antoinette Pole (2010). New York: Routledge. pp. 161.

Political communication scholars and educators are well aware of how new developments in social media, e-mail, blogging, and the microtargeting of messages to niche audiences have altered American politics and political campaigns. Two new books delve into these topics, one by focusing on the presidential campaign of 2008 and the other by examining political blogging by minorities, women, and political elites.

Book Review[s] – Funding Journalism in the Digital Age & Vanishing Act

May 11, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

Funding Journalism in the Digital Age: Business Models, Strategies, Issues and Trends. Jeff Kaye and Stephen Quinn (2010). New York: Peter Lang. pp. 185.

Vanishing Act: The Erosion of Online Footnotes and Implications for Scholarship in the Digital Age. Michael Bugeja and Daniela V. Dimitrova (2010). Duluth, MN: Litwin Books. pp. 86.

In a dazzlingly short time, our communication and research habits have dramatically changed. Thanks to technology and the Internet, we’ve found new ways to share, store, connect, search, and inform. In so doing, we’ve damaged, outgrown, or abandoned systems that supported “old” ways—as is plainly seen in the news industry’s turmoil of the past decade. Some functions those old ways served, however, need protecting. These books address two such challenges. The difficulty of finding new economic underpinnings for the production of journalism has been the focus of heated attention. The need to be able to consistently retrieve what has been shared online has not. Both areas deserve explication, which the books’ authors ably provide.

Book Review – Journalism Education in Countries with Limited Media Freedom

May 11, 2011 By AEJMC Leave a Comment

Journalism Education in Countries with Limited Media Freedom. Josephi Beate (ed.) (2010). New York: Peter Lang. pp. 280.

Journalism education programs have enjoyed a dramatic expansion globally since the 1990s. As of 2007, there were 1,859 journalism education institutions across the world, according to the World Journalism Education Census (Center for International Media Assistance, http://www.ellenhume.com/articles/education.pdf). Against this background, the edited volume Journalism Education in Countries with Limited Media Freedom offers a better understanding of the meanings and implications of the growth of journalism education in non-Western societies. It stands out among numerous books on journalism education by taking a comparative perspective, not in conflict with a global view, and focuses on the development and current status of journalism education in transitional societies over the past few decades.