[Commlist] New Book: The Margins of Journalism

New Book: /The Margins of Journalism/

/The Margins of Journalism/
By: Lenka Waschková Císařová, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Copyright 2025, Peter Lang
Series: Frontiers in Journalism Studies, editor: Scott A. Eldridge II, 
University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Website: https://www.peterlang.com/document/1340781

/The Margins of Journalism/ explores the peripheral journalists and 
media organisations who have been overlooked in our efforts to 
understand a changing journalistic field. Seeing local journalists as 
unmapped agents of the journalistic field, this book provides a 
comprehensive study of local journalism in the post-socialist, 
post-transitional Czech media system, and conceptualises these actors as 
unique agents within the journalistic field. Informed by Pierre 
Bourdieu’s field theory, it adopts an inductive approach, presenting the 
stories of specific journalists derived from interviews and participant 
observation in the places where they work, alongside surveys of local 
newspapers. From these studies, this book systematically maps these 
peripheral, journalistic actors and their positions in the journalistic 
field, accounting for their relationships and the trends shaping Czech 
journalism to give voice to those who are not usually heard – 
journalists on the margins.

“This book offers a fine-grained examination into the struggles and 
successes of local newspaper journalists adjusting to a digital era. It 
demonstrates how shining a light on their unique—often 
underexplored—practices can provide broader learnings for the future of 
journalism. While the book appeals to emerging and experienced scholars 
alike, it also offers practical wisdom in understanding the 
post-socialist and post transitional media environment within the Czech 
Republic. This makes it a refreshing contribution of knowledge beyond a 
western-centric gaze. Anyone building a collection of seminal literature 
on local media should add this to their library.”
—Professor Kristy Hess, Deakin University, Australia

“Grounded in robust primary data, collected through a rigorous 
mixed-method research design and guided by Bourdieu’s theory of action, 
this book provides fresh understanding of the dynamics of the periphery 
and what it means to be on the margins of journalism. Unveiling layers 
of the periphery within the context of a post-socialist and 
post-transitional media system, often overlooked in dominant Westernised 
study of journalism, this book provides a fresh and insightful 
perspective. This rich and insightful contribution directs our attention 
to the important but often under researched margins of journalism, and 
as such it contributes to a wider understanding of what it means to be a 
journalist.”
—Professor Agnes Gulyas, Canterbury Christ Church University, United Kingdom

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1. The margins of journalism
Chapter 2. Individuals on the margins
Chapter 3. Habitus, capitals, and practices of an individual on the margins
Chapter 4. Newspapers on the margins
Chapter 5. Disposition and position of a newspaper on the margins
Chapter 6. The margins of journalism revisited: Alongside journalism

This is the first book in the 'Frontiers in Journalism Studies Series’ 
 with Peter Lang. An overview of the series is accessible here: 
https://peterlang.com/series/fijs The aim of this series is to provide a 
space for journalism scholars to develop provocative research, to look 
at understudied corners of our field, and to revisit theories that we 
have drawn on. If you are interested in discussing whether your book 
idea might fit this series, please get in touch with the series editor 
Scott Eldridge at: (s.a.eldridge.ii /at/ rug.nl)

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