In this new important book Graldine Muhlmann provides a comparative history ofthe rise of modern journalism from the revolution of the late nineteenthcentury wi... » 

In this new important book Graldine Muhlmann provides a comparative history ofthe rise of modern journalism from the revolution of the late nineteenthcentury with its new concern for facts through to the present day. Heraccount is structured around the tension between what she calls the unifyingand decentring tendencies in modern journalism that is the concern to givereaders a truth that is acceptable to all on the one hand and the concern toresist dominant representations and give voice to alternative views on theother. She illustrates her account with a wide range of case studies fromSverine who covered the trial of Dreyfus in late nineteenthcentury France tothe great Vietnam War reporters Seymour M. Hersh and Michael Herr. In betweenare fascinating new readings of famous figures like George Orwell and NormanMailer as well as some less wellknown writers such as the great Americanmuckraker Lincoln Steffens and the French crusading journalist AlbertLondres. This historical and comparative account of the rise of modernjournalism will be an ideal text for courses in journalism politicalcommunication and media history. Written by an author who believes thatjournalism is crucial to our modern democracies and that it deserves to bestudied with knowledge and care the book raises serious questions about therole of the reporter and about the sorts of journalism that are possible in thetwentyfirst century. «