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A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts And HARDLY A DYING ART: THE FLOURISHING OF PRINT NEWS IN LITERARY JOURNALISM BOOKS A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Communication, Culture and Technology By Katherine Emily Aberbach, B.A. Washington, DC April 17, 2007 Copyright © 2007 by Katherine Emily Aberbach All Rights Reserved ii HARDLY A DYING ART: THE FLOURISHING OF PRINT NEWS IN LITERARY JOURNALISM BOOKS Katherine Emily Aberbach, B.A. Thesis Advisor: Diana Owen, Ph.D. ABSTRACT While most media scholars are turning their attention toward virtual means of communication, few individuals or research organizations have taken notice of new developments related to physical forms of news in print. The increasing popularity of socially and politically relevant literary journalism books like Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed (2001) and Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003) is a journalistic trend that has been largely viewed from a literary perspective—and only minimally examined by news media scholars or experts. This thesis seeks to bridge the chasm between literary examinations of literary journalism books and scholarship on contemporary mass media, by highlighting socially and politically relevant literary journalism books as a form of powerful and influential communications media. Though these books contain literary and subjective elements like first-person perspective, they also share a number of important characteristics with modern-day mainstream print news, making them a hybrid media form. iii Through an examination of bibliographic, textual and literary characteristics of Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed and Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, I demonstrate that the books’ definitions and functions are intrinsically connected to those of traditional American print news. In addition, I utilize the media effects theory and methodology of “uses and gratifications” in order to guide and analyze original focus group and survey research. This approach enables a unique comparison between individuals’ understandings of and reactions to Nickel and Dimed and Mountains Beyond Mountains with their uses and gratifications of mainstream print news media. Ultimately, this thesis not only provides evidence that socially and politically relevant literary journalism books represent a flourishing genre of print news, but also identifies characteristics and qualities of the books that may be valuable for future scholarship. iv Acknowledgments I owe many thanks to everyone who has helped contribute to this thesis and to my completion of the Communication, Culture and Technology program at Georgetown University. First, I’d like to thank Professor Diana Owen, who has given invaluable advice, comments and encouragement throughout the entire time I have worked on this thesis. I would also like to thank Professor Michael Macovski for his assistance and enthusiasm as my second reader. Thanks also to Garrison LeMasters for videotaping both of the focus groups used in this thesis. Thanks to all of my classmates, coworkers and friends in Georgetown’s Communication, Culture and Technology program and at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship, for inspiring me to work with purpose and passion. Darren Favello and Mara Dougherty deserve special thanks for contributing to both my studies and my study breaks. Last but not least, I can’t thank my parents and sister enough for their constant support and encouragement throughout my entire educational career. I would also like to acknowledge and thank my late grandmother, whose enthusiasm about all of my academic and professional endeavors meant so much to me. v Table of Contents Index of Tables................................................................................................. viii Index of Figures......................................................................................................ix Chapter 1. Introduction......................................................................................1 Outline of Chapters ...................................................................... 11 Chapter 2. Literature Review...........................................................................12 Objectivity and the Development of Mainstream American News 13 The Indefinable Nature of Modern-Day News ........................ 22 Recent History of Literary Journalism Books ............................... 25 Traits and Terms..................................................................... 33 Chapter 3. Hypotheses, Theoretical Frameworks and Methodologies...............38 Textual, Literary and Cultural Studies Approaches....................... 39 Uses and Gratifications Theory..................................................... 46 Relevant Findings from Past Studies....................................... 51 Designing An Original Study.................................................. 54 Chapter 4. Book Histories ...............................................................................60 “Bibliographic Codes”.................................................................. 61 Social and Cultural Reading Contexts........................................... 64 Readers’ Social and Political Activism ......................................... 69 Chapter 5. Textual and Literary Analysis.........................................................74 Similarities and Connections ........................................................ 76 Relevance, Purpose and Impressions of Objectivity ................ 76 Historical Ties ........................................................................ 81 Differences Between the Books and Mainstream Print Media....... 86 Subjective Points of View....................................................... 86 Entertainment ......................................................................... 88 Voice...................................................................................... 90 Chapter 6. Uses and Gratifications of Literary Journalism Books ....................94 Uses of Nickel and Dimed and Mountains Beyond Mountains ...... 96 Informational and Educational Uses ....................................... 98 Social Uses............................................................................102 vi Vicarious Uses.......................................................................108 Other Uses: Value Confirmation and Political Identification..114 Gratifications of Nickel and Dimed and Mountains Beyond Mountains ...................................................................................116 Vicarious Gratifications.........................................................118 Informational and Educational Gratifications.........................121 Social Gratifications ..............................................................133 Gratifications Evidenced by Behavioral Changes...................136 Chapter 7. Comparing Uses and Gratifications of Mainstream Print News with Literary Journalism Books ...................................................142 Identifying “Mainstream Print News”..........................................143 Uses of Mainstream Print News...................................................145 Informational and Educational Uses ......................................148 Social Uses............................................................................152 Vicarious Uses.......................................................................153 Other Uses: Value Confirmation (or Rejection) and Political Identification .........................................................................153 Gratifications of Mainstream Print News.....................................160 Informational and Educational Gratifications.........................162 Social Gratifications ..............................................................166 Gratifications Evidenced by Behavioral Changes...................168 Vicarious Gratifications and the Role of Authorial Perspective ..............................................................................................172 Chapter 8. Conclusion ...................................................................................182 Appendix A. Focus Groups ..............................................................................190 Appendix B. Literary Journalism Survey..........................................................195 Appendix C. Copyright Permission .................................................................210 Works Cited.....................................................................................................212 Works Consulted..............................................................................................225 vii Index of Tables Table 1.1: Characteristics of socially and politically relevant literary journalism books... 3 Table 6.1: Individuals’ uses or “expectations” of Nickel and Dimed and Mountains Beyond Mountains................................................................................................. 97 Table 6.2: Individuals’ practical reasons for reading Nickel and Dimed and/or Mountains Beyond Mountains............................................................................................... 103 Table 6.3: Individuals’ gratifications or “experiences reading” Nickel and Dimed and Mountains Beyond Mountains ............................................................................. 117
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