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When News Was New by Terhi Rantanen β€” book cover

When News Was New

by Terhi Rantanen
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Overview

What is news, and why sell it? What is one buying when one buys news? Is it the "objectivity" of news that matters, or is it rather the public's appetite for the latest scoop?

When News Was New investigates how news has been re-invented at different historical moments, from medieval storytellers to nineteenth-century telegraph news agencies to twenty-first-century bloggers and podcasters. Rantanen argues that the newness of news has been regularly reconstructed, and that the era of "pure" news is over: news is mostly old stories made new.

Rather than asking whether news is "objective," the book explores the temporality and spatiality of news, in order to show how it changes not only itself but the space around it. Written in a clear and succinct style, When News Was New reaches out from the field of journalism studies to survey the wider social implications of news.

Synopsis

What is news, and why sell it? What is one buying when one buys news? Is it the "objectivity" of news that matters, or is it rather the public's appetite for the latest scoop?

When News Was New investigates how news has been re-invented at different historical moments, from medieval storytellers to nineteenth-century telegraph news agencies to twenty-first-century bloggers and podcasters. Rantanen argues that the newness of news has been regularly reconstructed, and that the era of "pure" news is over: news is mostly old stories made new.

Rather than asking whether news is "objective," the book explores the temporality and spatiality of news, in order to show how it changes not only itself but the space around it. Written in a clear and succinct style, When News Was New reaches out from the field of journalism studies to survey the wider social implications of news.

About the Author, Terhi Rantanen

Terhi Rantanen is Professor and Director of the Master's Proframme in Global Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has published extensively on global news and is the author of six books and more than fifty chapters and articles published in the UK, the USA, Austria, Finland, Russia, Sweden and Taiwan.

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Editorials

From the Publisher

"A well structured analysis of journalism and what actually entails news, this is both an educational and thought provoking exploration into the purity of news. (M/C Reviews, March 2010)

"Terhi Rantanen's When News Was New is much more than a narrative of journalism history. This is an investigation into the very nature of journalism as it changes through the centuries." (Polis Journalism and Society, April 2009)

Book Details

Published
May 1, 2009
Publisher
Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated
Pages
172
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9781405175524

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