Journalism Studies, Volume 5, Number 4, 2004, pp. 551–562 Book Reviews The Troubles of Journalism: a critical look The Troubles of Journalism is a small book with at what’s right and wrong with the press, big goals. It purports to diagnose “the causes of 2nd edn the malaise that seems to grip the news business WILLIAM A. HACHTEN today,” as well as to catalog the major economic, social, cultural and technological changes in Women and Journalism American journalism; to evaluate the impact of DEBORAH CHAMBERS,LINDA STEINER AND CAROLE the changes and the criticism they have trig- FLEMING gered; and to suggest what the changes have meant for America and the world. Meget Stoerre End Du Tror: avislaeserne og From the anecdotal opening of the preface det internationale through 14 chapters on an assortment of issues facing modern journalism, William Hachten JENS HENRIK HAAHR AND HANS HENRIK HOLM brings the observations and insights of a lengthy career to bear in this book. In essence, it takes Mass Communication Ethics: decision the tone of a valedictory address, rich with both making in postmodern culture, 2nd edn concern and celebration. While the intended LARRY Z. LESLIE audience is never made explicit, the book’s ma- terial and tone suggest it will be most effective From Bevan to Blair: fifty years’ reporting with students and lay readers. If that is the case, from the political frontline then the book succeeds at its goals. GEOFFREY GOODMAN Upper-level undergraduate students and en- try-level graduate students who find their way Technology, Television, and Competition: to The Troubles of Journalism generally consider it the politics of digital TV both enlightening and highly readable. They JEFFREY A. HART find it exciting and eye-opening. Whether jour- nalism scholars or researchers have the same The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR reaction depends on how current they are with AL RIES AND LAURA RIES the issues of shifting news values, the impact of media concentration on public affairs coverage, trends in American coverage of international Critical Approaches to Television, 2nd edn news, and the history of journalism education. LEAH R. VANDE BERG,LAWRENCE A. WENNER The book’s presentation is uneven. The Trou- AND BRUCE E. GRONBECK bles of Journalism is at its best where it shows and at its weakest where it tells. Students who Media Organisation and Production are new to a particular topic need concrete ex- SIMON COTTLE (Ed.) amples to follow the point. Those who are fam- iliar with the topic often need the concrete The Troubles of Journalism: a critical look examples to grasp Hachten’s point or at least at what’s right and wrong with the press, suspend judgment while he completes his 2nd edn thought. WILLIAM A. HACHTEN The book is particularly weak when it strings Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, a quote from one famous media scholar to a 2001 quote from another media scholar. Turn the 205 pp., US$26 (pbk), 0-8058-3817-1 page, however, and authoritative, well-rea ISSN 1461-670X print/ISSN 1469-9699 online/04/040551-12 © 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd DOI: 10.1080/14616700412331296464 552 BOOK REVIEWS soned examples make the author’s case. On the Women and Journalism other hand, Hachten does a good job of high- DEBORAH CHAMBERS,LINDA STEINER AND CAROLE lighting important conclusions about media FLEMING performance and consumption from some of London and New York: Routledge, 2004 the big-name scholars in the field. For instance, 278 pp., £16.99 (pbk), 0-415-27445-1 he calls attention to Stephen Hess’s observation that the United States has really become one Women and Journalism is an impressively- nation with a two-tiered media consumption researched book bursting at the seams with system: those with resources want and have intriguing snippets and one which will sit access to more news about the world than they comfortably on many shelves—but it also made can consume, while the vast majority of Ameri- me question what I want in a textbook. cans get little news and consume less. Deborah Chambers, Linda Steiner and Carole One of the more troubling aspects of the Fleming have provided us with a comprehen- book is the inconsistency in underlying as- sive and accessible look at women’s roles in sumptions. For example, while one chapter journalism. But for me, it is also an opportunity suggests that American journalism was more lost, as it fails to provide any original first-hand focused and more serious when Hachten and input from either UK or US practitioners. It’s a his peers were young, the next carefully pref- classic cuttings job—collecting lots of sources aces criticism by saying that in many ways, the together with very little gloss on. In fact, it’s press is better today. heavy on tell but light on show. Additionally, the book’s emphasis is some- The authors pursue a largely chronological times more Ameri-centric than some readers and historical path for the first few chapters, will be comfortable with. For instance, this au- looking at women journalists between 1850 and thor might quibble with the assertion that the 1945 and then during the post-war period. global media are essentially American, when From there they examine: education and train- the BBC and other British and international ing; the glass ceiling which has stopped many interests have played important parts in global women from progressing into the higher eche- communication for longer than the United lons of the media; newsroom culture; and chal- States and, in many places, are still considered lenges to sexism and discrimination. There are more reliable than US news products. also chapters focusing on alternative media, A reader with much familiarity with media women war correspondents, and “post-mod- history also is likely to quibble with some of ern” journalism and its implications for Hachten’s assertions about past practice and women. the context in which events or media changes On the plus side, the book is a treasure trove took place. of facts and the authors are to be commended As a valedictory, The Troubles of Journalism on the prodigious amount of research they would be Hachten’s to define, but one might clearly have undertaken. I was particularly fas- suggest that there are issues of race, ethnicity cinated by early cases of investigative journal- and gender facing the America press that are ism by 19th-century women, such as Annie not reflected in the book’s pages. In the wake of Besant who exposed the appalling conditions of September 11, it is also tempting to be troubled match girls working in sweatshops in London by the underlying complacency about the blind in 1888. And never mind the old school tie; spots of the American model of world news C. P. Scott advanced the careers of UK women coverage that insulate US policy makers and journalists from the 1920s—but only if they citizens from a grasp of harsh, uncomfortable were his wife’s university friends, or women he realities about the vast chasms between Ameri- met socially! The authors comment: “However, can thought and culture and the cultures of the the proportion of women who resorted to per- rest of the world. sonal contacts to get a job created the im- CATHERINE CASSARA pression that only ‘well-connected’ women Bowling Green State University USA were suitable to be journalists, and this created BOOK REVIEWS 553 another barrier for women from working-class network! And in the “post-modern journalism” backgrounds” (p. 27). I was also unaware of the section, the authors mention porn publisher fact that the BBC didn’t employ married or Richard Desmond’s takeover of the Daily Ex- divorced women until the 1960s. press, commenting that: “…Desmond was intent However, the book’s rather rigid structure on reporting only ‘positive news’ in the Daily (UK situation … US situation…), plus the de- Express. This story demonstrates the moral and cision to shoehorn print, broadcast and online professional dilemmas that women journalists, media into what is a fairly compact book, and indeed their male colleagues, now face causes some problems with both flow and rep- more or less routinely in the news media indus- etition. Marjorie Proops, one of the best-known try” (p. 216). This is a worrisome blanket state- English journalists of the 1950s and 1960s, first ment which, whilst acknowledging Desmond’s appears in a section sub-headed “women at undesirable influence on the newspaper indus- British newspapers,” where her feature writing try, tars every other newspaper with the same is mentioned. For many readers, though, she brush. was far better known as an agony aunt—but And in other cases the authors display a lack this angle doesn’t appear until a later section. of understanding of the print industry. The And the same goes for The Guardian’s Mary authors are right to say that print publications Stott, one of the most renowned of women’s can be cheap and easy to produce, but the pages editors—but one who had a distinctly reason many failed was simply because stan- subversive approach to them! Stott pops up in dards were woefully low, or because it was— several places when she could quite usefully and still is—virtually impossible to get the have been profiled in one section. non-mainstream magazines or papers dis- This begs the question as to why the authors tributed widely. chose not to examine certain writers or publica- I felt the book was a missed opportunity to tions in more depth.