Losing the News - The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy (Hardcover)

What is wrong with the news? To answer this dismaying question, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex S. Jones has written Losing the News, a probing look at the epochal changes sweeping the media which are eroding the core news that has been the essential food supply of our democracy. At a time of dazzling technological innovation, Jones says that what stands to be lost is the fact-based reporting that serves as a watchdog over government, holds the powerful accountable, and gives citizens what they need. In a tumultuous new media era, with cutthroat competition and panic over profits, the commitment of the traditional news media to serious news is fading. Should we lose a critical mass of this news, our democracy will weaken or even fail. As the old economic model for news is being shattered by digital technology, the news media are making a painful passage that is taking a toll on journalistic values and standards. Journalistic objectivity and ethics are under assault, as is the bastion of the First Amendment. Jones characterizes himself not as a pessimist about news, but a realist. The breathtaking possibilities that the web offers are undeniable, but at what cost? Pundits and talk show hosts have persuaded Americans that the crisis in news is bias and partisanship. Not so, says Jones. The real crisis is the erosion of the iron core of news, something that hurts Republicans and Democrats alike. In its concluding chapters, Losing the News looks over the horizon, exploring ways the core can be preserved. Losing the News, the penultimate title in Oxford's highly successful Annenberg Institutions of Democracy series, depicts an unsettling situation in which theAmerican birthright of fact-based, reported news is in danger. But it is also a call to arms to fight to keep the core of news intact.