The Anthropology of News and Journalism

"In her introduction to this valuable collection of 16 original chapters, editor Bird (Univ. of South Florida) makes a strong case for the study of news and journalism as an important new arena of anthropological scholarship. One indication of the contemporary centrality of news and journalism to the production of social reality and cultural meaning is the convergence of academic disciplines—prominently including communication studies, British cultural studies, political science, and academic journalism itself—around the topic. Bird argues that anthropology can make a significant contribution to this interdisciplinary mix through its refined and rigorous ethnographic methods and its comparative cultural perspective. The individual chapters, authored by leading figures in media anthropology and media studies, strongly reinforce that claim. They also demonstrate that the gains are reciprocal. Combining anthropological perspectives and methods with those more central to other disciplines, such as survey research and formal content analysis, extends the scope of media anthropology. The chapters represent studies from Australia, India, Palestine, Portugal, Venezuela, Vietnam, Ghana, Zambia, Montserrat, and the US, and provide fascinating insights into the variations and continuities of news as social process in distinct cultural contexts. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. — Choice"

~A. Arno, University of Hawai'i at Manoa

"[T]his volume will remain a key work of reference in the field for many years to come. It greatly enriches the media anthropological corpus and offers a range of case studies and conceptual tools that students and scholars in the anthropology of media and neighbouring fields will want to apply and develop in new contexts."

~Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

"[T]he book offers fresh perspectives on the topic of the anthropology of news and journalism and it does so in a way that is both scholarly and accessible."

~Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies

"A much-needed contribution to the anthropology of mass media, S. Elizabeth Bird's edited book on news and journalism can be read as an extremely productive reevaluation of not just anthropology's contribution to the study of news, but mass media in general. 106.2011"

~Anthropos

"Provide[s] fascinating insights into the variations and continuities of news as social process in distinct cultural contexts. . . . Highly recommended."

~Choice

"[Provides] an array of insights and challenging questions that will be of interest to anyone keen to move on from the traditional assumption that news is simply news.Issue 135, May 2010."

~Lawrie Zion, Media Studies, La Trobe University

"A thoughtful, persuasive, necessary, and long overdue tracking of the intersection connecting journalism and anthropology."

~Barbie Zelizer, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

"Extends the dialogue between anthropology and journalism into fruitful realms, focusing as it does on news in particular, rather than broader issues involving the mass media."

~Michael Evans, School of Journalism, Indiana University