Routledge The Pursuit of Public Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism

The Pursuit of Public Journalism is an engaging introduction to the theoretical foundations and practices of the journalistic reform movement known as 'public journalism.' Public journalism - stated briefly - seeks to reinvest journalism with its fundamental responsibilities to democracy and public life. This book argues against many deeply ingrained practices ranging from journalistic detachment to framing stories via polar conflict in favor of greater civic involvement on the part of journalists. Tanni Haas traces the historical context in which public journalism emerged, develops a philosophy for public journalism, reviews empirical research on public journalism’s performance to date and responds to the major criticisms directed at public journalism.  He also examines the particular challenges that public journalism poses to curriculum and instruction: how can journalism educators teach students to write stories useful and of concern to citizens, and how can they encourage citizens to publicly criticize news coverage of given topics? Following review of the major challenges and criticisms of public journalism, the author offers practical solutions for improving public journalism and speculates on public journalism’s likely future. Review "In contrast with previous works, the book reviews how public journalism is practiced internationally...supported by a comprehensive bibliography...well-written..." --CHOICE "Reviews what public or civic journalism is, where it has come from, how it is practiced, and some of the problems with it... In all, this is a very useful survey of an ongoing debate about journalism."--Chris Sterling, Communication Booknotes Quarterly  "As a former journalist who counts herself among both the practitioners and advocates of public journalism, I find it extraordinary to see public journalism through Haas' eyes. ... he delivers on the book's subtitle with a rare form of passionately engaged scholarship. ... Unique to this book are a comprehensive survey of public journalism outside of the United States and a discussion of the intersections and overlaps between public and citizen journalism."--Cheryl Gibbs, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly About the Author Tanni Haas is Associate Professor of Speech Communication Arts & Sciences at Brooklyn College. He has published many journal articles and book chapters on the theory and practice of public journalism.