Democracy and the News

I purchased Herbert J. Gans' Democracy and the News the other day and I've started to read it. I read his Deciding What's News a couple years ago and was deeply saddened to see that the massive media corporatization I talk about today started in the 1970s, when the book was published. The sadness comes not from ignorance, but from a depression that there's nothing unique about the business practices going on in my generation, save for their scope. Democracy and the News is, according to Gans' preface, a continuation of that book in a sense, though it applies sociological models more heavily than did Deciding Whatt's News, which relied mainly on case studies and clear empirical data.

It also seems to suggest that the journalist ought to be the catalyst for activism. I certainly agree with that, given the proper context, of course.

I also bought Ben Bagdikian's New Media Monopoly that I mentioned a few months ago. I've elected to read that one next, though I'll probably through Nelson Algren's The Man with the Golden Arm in between, for fun.