Rebuilding the News

Puts recent dramatic changes in American journalism in sociological perspective

"Anderson explores whether and how emerging online news has changed the practice of reporting. Using a variety of research techniques including ethnography, social-network analysis, and archival content research, he takes an in-depth look at one city (Philadelphia) to study changes in journalism from the 1990s to the present... Scholars in journalism and organization sociology will appreciate Anderson's meticulous methodology and his analysis of the responses of journalists and news organizations to a rapidly changing environment."--Library Journal, March 2013 "American journalism's death spiral is by now a well-known and much-lamented phenomenon. But precious few accounts offer us on-the-ground views of how journalistic institutions are actually changing. C.W. Anderson offers us such a vantage point in his book Rebuilding the News. He provides a close chronicle of local news organizations' experimentations and permutations in their attempts to adapt to an online environment. Anderson captures this transitional moment for journalism with a narrative based on an ethnographic study of Philadelphia media institutions... [He] gives us a thick description of news work practices in the digital age... This is an important book and an enjoyable read. Anderson's writing is lively, and his analysis of journalism's shifting practices is often provocative. His work advances the ongoing discussion about our rapidly changing news institutions, and his treatment of his subject matter is careful and nuanced. Overlapping with science and technology studies, this book is a significant contribution to the growing subfield of journalism studies as well as ethnographic and sociological scholarship more generally. It is a worthwhile read for anyone who has a stake in the future of journalism. In other words, we should all be reading this book." - Political Communication "For keen insights into why news organizations are struggling so mightily to adapt to a networked environment, you won't do better than this splendid ethnographic study of the Philadelphia news 'ecosystem'. In his rich depiction of the people and practices behind local blogs and independent media outlets as well as the websites of the city's (barely) surviving sister newspapers, the Inquirer and Daily News, Anderson combines sharp observations with thoughtful analysis to show just how precarious newswork today is - and the difficulty of making it less so... This is a fine book: solidly researched, engagingly written, highly informative, and intellectually stimulating. And, of course, the topic matters." - Journalism

C. W. Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Media Culture at the College of Staten Island (City University of New York). He has published in numerous academic journals and writes occasionally for the Nieman Journalism Lab and the Atlantic Online. He has contributed chapters to edited volumes including The Social Media Reader, Making Our Media, Making Online News,and the Journalism Studies Handbook.