[Commlist] New Book - Democracy without Journalism?

New book

*Democracy without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society*

As local media institutions collapse and news deserts sprout up across 
the country, the US--like many countries around the world--is facing a 
profound journalism crisis. Meanwhile, continuous revelations about the 
role that major media outlets--from Facebook to Fox News--play in the 
spread of misinformation have exposed deep pathologies in American 
communication systems. Despite these threats to democracy, policy 
responses have been woefully inadequate.

In /Democracy Without Journalism?/ Victor Pickard argues that we're 
overlooking the core roots of the crisis. By uncovering degradations 
caused by run-amok commercialism, he brings into focus the historical 
antecedents, market failures, and policy inaction that led to the 
implosion of commercial journalism and the proliferation of 
misinformation through both social media and mainstream news. The 
problem isn't just the loss of journalism or irresponsibility of 
Facebook, but the very structure upon which our profit-driven media 
system is built. The rise of a "misinformation society" is symptomatic 
of historical and endemic weaknesses in the American media system 
tracing back to the early commercialization of the press in the 1800s. 
While professionalization was meant to resolve tensions between 
journalism's public service and profit imperatives, Pickard argues that 
it merely camouflaged deeper structural maladies. Journalism has always 
been in crisis. The market never supported the levels of 
journalism--especially local, international, policy, and investigative 
reporting--that a healthy democracy requires. Today these long-term 
defects have metastasized.

The book envisions what a new kind of journalism might look like, 
emphasizing the need for a publicly owned and democratically governed 
media system. Amid growing scrutiny of unaccountable monopoly control 
over media institutions and concerns about the consequences to 
democracy, now is an opportune moment to address fundamental flaws in 
commercial news and information systems and push for alternatives. 
Ultimately, the goal is to reinvent journalism.

*Order online at www.oup.com/academic <http://www.oup.com/academic> with 
promo code ASFLYQ6 to save 30%*
US December 2019 | UK February 2020
Paperback | 9780190946760
$27.95 *$19.60* | £18.99 *£13.30*

Early praise for /Democracy without Journalism?/

"Pickard presents a sharp critique and historical review of the 
'discursive capture' of policy discussions by market fundamentalism in 
the US ... An eloquent and carefully reasoned call for revival of what 
has been lost to overcome the severe structural crisis of the media, 
with its deleterious impact on functioning democracy. A very important 
book."

*Noam Chomsky*, MIT and University of Arizona


"Few topics deserve and receive more attention today than the collapse 
of democratic practices and institutions, as well as the propaganda 
barrage emanating from social media and the Internet. Conspicuously 
absent is arguably the single most important factor: the freefall 
collapse and disintegration of the commercial news media system such 
that journalism barely exists in the United States compared to a 
generation ago. Victor Pickard has done a masterful job of explaining 
the crisis in his highly original /Democracy without Journalism?/ and 
has provided an evidence-based roadmap to the range of solutions 
necessary to make democracy functional. It is in all our interests that 
this brilliant book be widely read."
*Robert W. McChesney*, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"This is the best discussion of the crisis of American journalism I have 
read. Not only does Pickard show how the precarious commercial situation 
of the press contributes to the fragile state of contemporary democracy, 
but he charts a path toward more reliable public information and 
stronger democratic institutions."
*W. Lance Bennett*, University of Washington, Seattle

"Part journalism history, part policy analysis, and part meditation on 
the future of the media, /Democracy without Journalism?/ is a stellar 
book. Pickard expertly describes how markets and public policies have 
both failed journalism, and offers concrete suggestions for a way 
forward to support public media in the US."
*James T. Hamilton*, Stanford University

/Democracy without Journalism? /is available for purchase via these links:

*Oxford University Press*
global.oup.com/academic/product/democracy-without-journalism-9780190946753 
<http://global.oup.com/academic/product/democracy-without-journalism-9780190946753>

*Amazon*

amzn.com/0190946768/ <http://amzn.com/0190946768/>



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