Cultural Meanings of News

Consider news—as the product of a culture

What is news? What does news tell us about the culture and the society that produces and consumes it? This book provides a fresh examination of news production from a cultural perspective, moving beyond what was once called "sociology of news" and toward the globally-broader, culturally-based concept of "journalism studies."

Key Features

• Twenty-three original and contemporary articles—encompassing the intrinsic cultures of print, broadcast, and online media—are grouped in six thematically cohesive sets.
• The articles are presented chronologically to allow the reader to follow the exchange of ideas between authors over time.
• Berkowitz looks at news globally, helping the student look beyond his or her own cultural context to that of many other societies.
• A comprehensive framework helps to thoughtfully present this cultural study of news. Berkowitz opens and closes the text with a cultural perspective on news and hints on applying this perspective to emerging news situations; each section also contains an introduction that highlight connections between the articles.

Intended Audience

Cultural Meanings of News: A Text-Reader is ideal for a wide range of courses in any journalism studies curriculum, including Media and Society, Sociology of News, Media Criticism, and Popular Culture and Mass Media. This text may also be used as a companion to Berkowitz′s Social Meaning of News: A Text-Reader, which addresses the sociological approach to news.