Merchants of Truth by Jill Abramson review – journalism’s troubles

A former editor of the New York Times takes an unsparing look at the decline of US journalismThis book about the commercial takeover of the news business is sure to make a lot of powerful people very angry. Jill Abramson takes an unsparing look at US journalism’s moral decline; as former executive editor of the New York Times, she is someone who knows where most of the bodies are buried and is prepared to draw the reader a detailed map. Names are named, mistakes are exposed, and the writing is unforgiving and unadorned, as befits a woman with “balls like iron cantaloupes”, as one veteran journalist tells her. It is a cracking read, and a complicated one, flawed in many places yet absorbing in its frank desire to hold journalism to account for becoming overly willing to sell out to advertisers and thereby endangering its own future.Abramson compares four media organisations: the New York Times; its longtime rival the Washington Post; BuzzFeed; and Vice. These last two digital media companies, born of early viral content and gonzo reporting, are often the madcap foils to the gravitas of the Times and Post – though by the end it’s clear that all four are closer to each other than they may think. In fact, both the digital and traditional publications have shown great adaptability; BuzzFeed and Vice have unquestionably succeeded, in a short time, in producing compelling journalism, even in Abramson’s telling. As well as a Pulitzer nomination, both have won highly respected... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2019-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #media organisations #longtime rival

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Review: 'Children of the Land' chronicles an immigrant poet's story of hiding in plain sight

In his memoir 'Children of the Land,' poet Marcelo Hernandez Castillo writes of border journeys, family separation and crossing a 'threshold of invisibility.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-01-29 15:00:08 UTC ]
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In ‘A Long Petal of the Sea,’ Isabel Allende delivers another sentimental epic set in troubled times

In her relentlessly linear narrative of more than 60 years of Spanish and Chilean history, Allende takes great pains to describe the real, lived effects of two dictatorships. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-01-23 13:50:56 UTC ]
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Everyone Can Be a Book Reviewer. Should They Be?

“Anyone can be a critic.” It’s a common lament these days now that the book review landscape is changing. English professors and book reviewers in newspapers aren’t the only tastemakers in literary criticism anymore: Goodreads community members, anonymous or top reviewers on Amazon, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-23 09:48:23 UTC ]
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Walker signs Angie Thomas journal

Walker Books will publish Angie Thomas' Find Your Voice: A Guided Journal for Writing Your Truth later this year.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-12 07:33:11 UTC ]
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Review: 'Uncanny Valley' serves up a biting slice of start-up life

'Uncanny Valley' by Anna Wiener is a biting, funny memoir from inside San Francisco's start-up culture. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-01-10 20:16:25 UTC ]
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Carty-Williams joins Guardian Review as columnist

Candice Carty-Williams has joined the Guardian as a columnist, writing a weekly piece for the paper’s Review supplement about "literature in its many forms" Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-06 19:55:03 UTC ]
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Review of the Year 2019: The Bestsellers

With print books selling 191.6 million units for £1.66bn, 2019 became the print market’s fifth consecutive year of growth and its best since 2010 in value terms, according to Nielsen BookScan’s Total Consumer Market.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-02 20:35:48 UTC ]
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‘Just Mercy’ Review: Echoes of Jim Crow on Alabama’s Death Row

Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan star in an adaptation of a memoir by the civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2019-12-24 19:45:28 UTC ]
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In the War on Truth, Complacency Is Not an Option

What did you do in the war? It was one of the most salient questions of the 20th century, as pregnant with harrowing implications as it was innocent. Now, as we complete the first decade of the new century, it bears repeating. Because we—we as citizens and humans and especially we of the... Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2019-12-23 19:18:41 UTC ]
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The Most-Read Book Reviews of 2019

Of the thousands of book reviews we published this year, these are the 10 most-read reviews of books that published in 2019. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-23 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Mining for Truth: An Indie Success Story

A BookLife Prize finalist discusses her newly published historical fiction novel. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-20 05:00:00 UTC ]
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2020 Pulitzer Prize Contest Open to Journalism Entries

The Journalism entry site is now open for the 2020 cycle. As entrants begin to take stock of their eligible Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2019-12-18 15:50:38 UTC ]
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Reuters, Facebook Journalism Project Create E-Learning Course on Deepfakes

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[ AdWeek | 2019-12-17 19:35:26 UTC ]
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Springer Nature points out problems with cOAlition S transformative journals plan

In an open letter sent today (Tuesday 17th December) to research funder consortium cOAlition S, Springer Nature has urged the coalition to make amendments to its proposed framework on transformative journals, currently out for consultation. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-16 23:07:57 UTC ]
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London Review of Books rounds off 40th anniversary

The London Review of Books has launched a new website, rounding off its 40th anniversary celebrations with a comprehensive overhaul of the paper’s online presence, with its archive freely accessible for a month. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-16 18:58:24 UTC ]
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Why the Rise of Paywalls Will Save Journalism

Journalism is arguably in one of the most fragile states since Gutenberg’s advent of the printing press almost 600 years Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2019-12-13 17:13:57 UTC ]
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The accidental book review that made Jack Kerouac famous

One article shifted the culture. Ronald K.L. Collins wonders whether it could happen today. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2019-12-13 07:10:24 UTC ]
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The Lost Books of Jane Austen by Janine Barchas review – how Austen's reputation has been warped

A deliciously original study of the cheap editions of Pride and Prejudice and other novels – ignored by literary scholars – casts new light on her readershipJane Austen aficionados think that they know the story of their favourite author’s posthumous dis-appearance and then re-emergence. For... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-12-11 07:30:31 UTC ]
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How Journalism Made a Poet Out of Me

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[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-06 09:48:12 UTC ]
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B&N Education to Begin Strategic Review

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
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