News: The Politics of Illusion

by W. Lance Bennett

Book Overview

For over thirty years, News: The Politics of Illusion has not simply reflected the political communication field--it has played a major role in shaping it. Today, the familiar news organizations of the legacy press are operating in a fragmenting and expanding mediaverse that resembles a big bang of proliferating online competitors that are challenging the very definition of news itself. Audience-powered sites such as the Huffington Post...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 022634486X
• ISBN13: 9780226344867
• Release Date: September 2016
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Not for the queasy-stomached, but necessary reading!

In this book, W. Lance Bennett analyzes why "news" is reported the way it is, what the influences were and are, and how we came to have our current version as published by the American press. I found this book in a used book store while doing research for some writing. It scared the heck out of me. Mr. Bennett's analysis is thorough, very well documented, and specifically identifies the way that "news reporting" became an industry not for news at all, but for marketing. It identifies the significant impacts of image and television, and how they have come to define how "news" is presented. To understand why I have put "news" in parentheses every time, you must read this book. To understand how important it is that you read this book, you must read it. This book is one of the reasons that I quit watching television over five years ago. I have a brain, I can use it, and I don't need the marketing demographics to define the version of the "news" I receive. Mr. Bennett: Thank you. Very much.