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Journalism at the End of the American Century, 1965-Present
James Brian McPherson
ISBN: 0-313-31780-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-31780-4
256 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 6/30/2006
List Price: $139.95 (UK Sterling Price: £96.95)
Discount Price: $69.98 Sale Price for U.S. Customers Only. Save 50%. Ends 12/31/2009.
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • [A] clear timeline across this fast-moving period that will benefit future scholars....[T]his pioneering foray into the most recent period of news journalism provides a solid chronolgy for undergraduates....and a wealth of detail no future historian will be able to ignore.
    —H-Net Reviews     February 2008
  • James Brian McPherson's history of the last half-century of U.S. journalism, the seventh and final volume of a series that's clearly the product of concerted planning and careful editing, is fine testament to the extent to which new approaches to historiography have influenced journalism scholars. Integrating academic research, popular histories and memoirs into a coherent yet never forced mosaic, this book provides an instructive and engrossing survey of a period that still weighs heavily upon our times....[s]atisfying and skillfully written....[a]ll sorts of uses in the classroom at all levels of the curriculum, from basic reporting to courses on principles and practices of news work to advanced graduate research seminars.
    —Journalism & Mass Communication Educator     Spring 2007
  • Journalism at the End of the American Century, 1965-Present by James Brian McPherson is a volume that reflects the struggle of detailing recent history without simply restating the well-known generalizations about the time. The result of this struggle is a work that is chock full of facts and anecdotes....This volume is a useful starting point for understanding the period under study.
    —Journalism History     Spring 2007
  • McPherson analyzes the nature and history of American journalism from 1965 to the present day. Each of nine chapters covers a general theme that became prominent during the period discussed. These include (for example) social upheavals, new kinds of news media, an increasing emphasis on entertainment, and propaganda and censorship in the coverage of the Gulf War. A bibliographic essay identifies some of the most pertinent research sources and secondary literature.
    —Reference & Research Book News     November 2006
  • The last volume in a series on the history of American journalism, this book provides a chronological overview from the Vietnam War era's activist press to the present, along the way reflecting on judicial, societal, technological, and attitudinal influences that have shaped the media. Because it focuses on a 40-year period characterized by rapid and extreme development including the resurgence of investigative journalism, unprecedented access to information, battlefront coverage during war, importance of graphic design, convergence, and civic journalism, this is an important resource for those interested in a standard history of journalism....Recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates through faculty.
    —Choice     3/1/2007
Description: McPherson captures the best and worst aspects of American journalism since 1965. The press has evolved into a conglomeration of entities, that today can be described as pervasive, entertaining, and justifiably mistrusted. In some ways, today's press offers the best journalism Americans have ever seen. In other ways, the modern news media fall short of the ideals held by most of those who care about journalism, and far short of the promise they once seemed to offer in terms of helping create an enlightened democracy. Neither a paean to the press nor an exercise in media bashing, this book finds much to criticize and to praise about recent American journalism, while illustrating that traditional journalistic values have diminished in importance — not just for many of those who control the media, but also for the media consumers who most need good journalism.

Chapters are devoted to various themes that include social unrest, the influence of entertainment values, technological shifts, media consolidation and corporatization, issues of content versus context, new kinds of news media, and why the 1970s may have been the high point of American journalism. Events and issues given extra attention include the rise of television news (and later CNN), the Civil Rights Movement and other race-related issues, the Women's Movement, various forms of alternative journalism, wars in Vietnam and Iraq, investigative journalism, the World Trade Center attacks, the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns and elections, civic journalism, and journalism scandals.
About the Author: James Brian McPherson is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Whitworth College. Previously he worked as a newspaper reporter and editor. He also has worked in corporate and non-profit public relations, and hosted a local public affairs radio program.
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