[Commlist] New Book: Journalism in a Fractured World

New Book: /Journalism in a Fractured World/

/Journalism in a Fractured World/
By: Scott A. Eldridge II, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Copyright 2025, Peter Lang
Series: Frontiers in Journalism Studies, editor: Scott A. Eldridge II
Website: https://www.peterlang.com/document/1288791

/Journalism in a Fractured World/ addresses the fractured nature of 
journalism as it has developed online. Engaging with theories from 
journalism studies and politics, it bases its findings on the study of 
peripheral journalistic media from the US, UK, and Netherlands. It 
addresses the pronounced animosity that has become a feature of 
peripheral, political, digital news. Focusing on the metajournalistic 
discourses produced by peripheral actors, it develops a framework to 
distinguish between peripheral antagonists and agonists. Antagonists 
blur lines between news and politics and foment societal divisions 
through narratives of backlash, fragmentation, and grievance. 
Journalistic agonists, on the other hand, are also political and 
critical, but offer a constructive vision of what journalism and society 
can become. Journalism in a Fractured World presents theories and 
frameworks for engaging with these actors with a clear-eyed message 
about the challenges journalism faces and how we might find our way 
forward, even in our fractured societies.

“How do we forge societies that tolerate pluralism? And what role does 
journalism play in this pursuit? These are the animating questions of 
this theoretically and empirically rich book. The fracturing we see 
around us challenges existing normative visions of a single journalistic 
voice capable of accommodating the full range of perspectives and 
experiences in complex modern societies. This is evident in the range of 
new voices at the periphery, clamoring to be heard and, just as 
importantly, to be recognized. This book maps out two visions, one of 
agonistic media voices where differences are respected as constitutive 
of society and one in which divisive antagonistic media voices stave off 
any hope of pluralism. This timely work is essential reading for anyone 
trying to make sense of where society –- and journalism – is heading.
– Matt Carlson, Professor of Journalism, University of Minnesota, United 
States

“In this brilliant book, Scott Eldridge eloquently combines Bourdieu’s 
field theory and Mouffe’s theory of agonism to enhance our understanding 
of the core and the periphery in journalism. The book expands our 
knowledge of how (ant)agonistic actors construct and question 
journalistic identity through different discursive approaches. With 
impressive conceptual clarity, Eldridge provides an analytical framework 
that I am convinced will be of use to everybody concerned with the 
plurality of news actors and what they mean in our fractured societies.”
– Karoline Andrea Ihlebæk, Professor in Journalism, OsloMet University, 
Norway

Chapter 1. Our fractured worlds
Chapter 2. Liberal, deliberative, and agonistic: Theories for a 
pluralist democracy
Chapter 3. Agonistic journalism: Making sense of a fractured field
Chapter 4. News of our fractured worlds: Journalism as societal discourse
Chapter 5. Metajournalistic discourses: Expanding the aperture
Chapter 6. Unheard, in a noisy world
Chapter 7. Affirm, affect, affront, aggrieve: Counterpublic narratives
Chapter 8. Agonism and antagonism: Journalism in a fractured world

This is the second 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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