Book Review – The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism

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The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism. Stuart Allen, ed. New York, NY: Routledge Publications, 2010, 642 pp.

This is an important as well as very substantial and valuable undertaking—a multi-national (and multi-author) scholarly survey of the whole academic field of journalism studies. With no fewer than fifty-six papers in seven categories, the majority written by researchers outside the United States, this is a comprehensive assessment of what we know about the fast-changing state of journalism here and abroad. Coverage is wide, indeed, such that the main section headings can only suggest the real breadth of this compilation. Documentation is thorough as well.

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Book Review – The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism

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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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