What Journalism Could Be [Paperback]

What Journalism Could Be asks readers to reimagine the news by embracing a conceptual prism long championed by one of journalisms leading contemporary scholars. A former reporter, media critic and academic, Barbie Zelizer charts a singular journey through journalisms complicated contours, prompting readers to rethink both how the news works and why it matters.

Zelizer tackles longstanding givens in journalisms practice and study, offering alternative cues for assessing its contemporary environment. Highlighting journalisms intersection with interpretation, culture, emotion, contingency, collective memory, crisis and visuality, Zelizer brings new meaning to its engagement with events like the global refugee crisis, rise of Islamic State, ascent of digital media and twenty-first-century combat.

Imagining what journalism could be involves stretching beyond the already-known. Zelizer enumerates journalisms considerable current challenges while suggesting bold and creative ways of engaging with them. This book powerfully demonstrates how and why journalism remains of paramount importance.

Contents
1: Imagining Journalism
Beginnings
2: Definitions of Journalism
Intro Section 1: Cues for Considering Key Tensions in Journalism
Barbie Zelizer, Jennifer Henrichsen and Natacha Yazbeck
3: On “Having Been There”: “Eyewitnessing” as a Journalistic Key Word
4: On the Shelf Life of Democracy in Journalism Scholarship
5: When Practice is Undercut By Ethics
Intro Section 2: Cues for Considering Disciplinary Matters
Barbie Zelizer, Jennifer Henrichsen and Natacha Yazbeck
6: Journalism and the Academy
7: Journalism in the Service of Communication
8: When Facts, Truth, and Reality Are God-Terms: On Journalism’ló5