Abstract
In the introduction to The Future of Quality News Journalism: A Cross-Continental Analysis, Editor Peter Anderson admits that it is not possible to cover journalistic practices from every continent in a work the scope of this book, but yet, that is what Anderson and his team accomplished.
Anderson, Ogola, and Williams successfully pulled together contributors from both the academic and professional journalism worlds to offer a comprehensive analysis of the challenges facing not only journalism but also quality news journalism in the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Kenya, India, and the Arab World. Anderson is reader in News Media and research coordinator for the School of Journalism and Digital Communications at the University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom, and author of several books. Ogola, senior lecturer in journalism at Central Lancashire University, continues to write a column for the Business Daily, and Williams is a senior lecturer in journalism at Central Lancashire University. Contributors range from senior executives in global news organizations to distinguished professors at universities across the world.
The book, divided into five sections including a bonus online chapter, examines case studies concerning “quality news journalism” through the lenses of economic and technological change, news practices in the United States and United Kingdom, challenges and promises of quality journalism in South Africa and Kenya, and finally, analyses of practices in India and the Arab World. Each section offers a variety of writing styles, all of which offer the reader detailed and well-researched glimpses into the challenges and issues facing journalists as they strive for quality coverage across the globe.
Anderson begins the book with a literature review of a primer to “quality news journalism” and defines hard news as “news about issues, processes, events and people that have an actual or potential significant political, economic or social impact on people’s daily lives and wellbeing within local, regional, transnational and/or global contexts” (p. 32). This chapter sets the framework as subsequent chapters examine the challenges to quality news journalism.
Throughout the book, readers gain a sense of the challenges facing news organizations to maintain some semblance of quality in times of economic and technological change. Much has been written in the trade and online journals about how digital and social media tools have changed the newsgathering and news writing process, but this book highlights how news organizations are dealing with not only this issue but also the issue of the changing business model for print, online, and broadcast. The three chapters in this section offer a comprehensive and wide-ranging examination of the industry debate over monetizing the Internet after news organizations gave away content for years.
Although several chapters are written for an academic audience, the most fascinating chapters offer honest assessments written by journalists who are adapting to the changing media landscape. For instance, Alex Ortolani, senior media and content officer at Asia Society in New York, interviewed Raju Narisetti of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. The chapter is written as a question-and-answer format with managing editor Narisetti, who offers in-the-trenches assessment of the changes traditional newsrooms encounter as they move from a print to a digital product. Some of these challenges include how journalists view page metrics and possibly can affect journalistic performance. These are issues that our students, the journalists of tomorrow, likely will face within the first few months on the job, and they need to understand how and why news organizations large and small rely on metrics.
The authors’ usage of case studies will help students and professors understand the current challenges to Anderson’s definition of quality news journalism. Students should enjoy reading accounts such as the Fall of Tripoli as documented by Sky News in 2011. Reporter Alex Crawford rode to Tripoli on the back of a rebel convoy truck and became the first journalist to report live about the liberation of Tripoli. She broadcast her stories via a crudely made uplink and helped Sky News develop a distinctive approach to journalism. “Crawford’s courageous reporting and her team’s creative use of broadcast technology allowed Sky to scoop rival news organizations and won Crawford a clutch of awards” (p. 172). Students also should find Clyde Bentley’s chapter about U.S. citizen journalism and alternative online sites fascinating as it details the history of citizen journalism and blogging, a digital tool that many students may have used since adolescence.
The chapters about Kenya, South Africa, India, and the Arab World offer historical analyses as well as real-world examples of current journalism practices. Students in an international journalism class would be well served to read these chapters to supplement their understanding of the dynamics of the political and business structures in these countries affecting the press.
This book could find a home in graduate seminars as well as supplementary material for undergraduate journalism classes that examine current business practices within a global marketplace. The chapters about the digital disruption faced by American and British news organizations particularly can help provide context for students enrolled in writing and reporting classes. The depth of reporting in these chapters will help these students examine the challenges to quality within the industry today and encourage them to examine their own fledgling practices of quality journalism.
Because of the bombardment of information available online, I find it extremely difficult to keep up with industry trends and issues as much as I would like. A book such as this collection allows professors and students to read and learn about real-life examples and struggles news organizations face to maintain quality in an age of instant push-button social and digital media journalism not only in the United States but also in developing nations and the United Kingdom. Speed cannot replace quality as these cases suggest. Furthermore, students need to develop a global perspective of the disruptions in the journalism industry, and this book helps to bridge the gap between textbooks and trade journals.