A scholarly treat
M. R. Dua
Rachel Davis Mersey
Is journalism really in
danger of disappearing
from our midst in the near
future? And becoming
extinct? Will journalism, in
its totality, survive the
relentless onslaught of the
ubiquitous digital-era- abundant
information that internet
bombards on us intermittently,
day in and day out? Can or will
rapidly growing,daily multiplying
news-sites, blogs, social media
channels, such as Facebook, You
Tube, Instagram, Twitter and the umpteen rest of
them, replace and substitute the
physical presence of journalism:
the printed daily newspaper,
television channel of a radio
station, from our lives?
Author Rachel Davis Mersey’s
book—Can Journalism be Saved?
--rings a scary alarm that there can
be a point in our lifetime when the
journalism -that we have today –
print or electronic – can vanish in
thin air, or can fade away, if it
doesn’t meet the individual’s
interest.
Mersey opines the news media
have excessively tended to
cultivate “too much coverage of
pop icon Michael Jackson...”
(Incidentally, in India too, we’re
witnessing pages and pages,
shows and shows, being turned in
and devoted to such news
coverages of the Priyanka
Chopras, Bhats, Bachchans, SRK
(and other Khans.) “Fascinating,”
she concedes, though all this may
seem to be so. Her contention is
that news is not just about
content.The old concept of news of
‘man biting dog’ is ‘gone’. Today,
it’s also about ‘how people use and
interact with media products.
The author adheres to the view
that the “audiences’ relationships
with the news are now more
complex than ever.” She warns of
the ‘survival threat’ to current
journalism if those ‘relationships’
become stronger.
In the author’s words, this book
helps in constructing a new
‘survival’ model to establish ‘a
future for serious reporting in the
journalism story of our time.’ The
aim, is to figure out how to
preserve the journalism’s
community-service function under
the social responsibility model
that has consumed the industry’s
attention. This book vehemently
avers that as ‘journalists do indeed
perform useful work, it merits to
be respected for its impact on the
society.
Actually, the book’s thesis
originates and is elaborated from
the researches of Chicago’s Medill
School of Journalism’s reputed
faculty (where Mersey is associate
professor) on the deeper and
fuller ‘understanding and
definition of news’ in the context
of modern news media’s lack of
apposite interpretation of news.
This publication is indeed a
unique and scholarly treat.
The book under review
rings a scary alarm that
there can be a point in our
lifetime when the
journalism that we have
today – print or electronic
– can vanish in thin air, or
can fade away, if it doesn’t
meet the individual’s
interest.