Politicians and journalists have never been among the most trusted professional classes; in this book, author Richard Forgette posits a "news grazing" explanation of how and why. Forgette, an expert on the U.S. Congress and public policy, draws upon direct experimental research to argue that the diffusion of media outlets and media technologies have resulted in an increasingly fragmented and distracted news audience.

Buy your copy now and pay only $5 for shipping!* (Use code C9BRGG when checking out. Applies only to orders in the US/Canada.) Follow the author′s blog at http://www.producingonlinenews.com! The dazzling speed of change in online journalism can mask a simple truth: online news is still news. Cutting-edge technology benefits the audience only when journalists apply it in the service of good stories. Building on a foundation of news stories, Producing Online News shows students how to use the right tools to get the right information to the right people at the right time. The goal is to become a full-fledged online news producer and transform stories into a complete news experience for an ever more demanding audience. Ryan Thornburg, a journalism trainer who has managed the websites of top news organizations, hones the skills students need to produce stories using multimedia, interactivity and on-demand delivery- online journalism′s three pillars. Practical instructions show students not just how to use the tools but also how to make good journalistic choices in applying them. The book works for courses specifically in online journalism or for any journalism course that incorporates multiple platforms. Features that make for stronger stories: TOOLS sections walk students through the latest technology- Twitter, Wordpress, Audacity, Caspio, Dipity and more- so their writing gains more immediacy and impact. Real-world examples from both traditional outlets and new-style sites like ProPublica, PolitiFact, BeliefNet and Global Voices showcase journalists connecting with their audiences. View Source boxes uncover the technology behind a specific news project-for example, how do just five editors at Yahoo News publish 2,000 stories a day? News Judgement boxes explore journalistic choices- sure, students can link a story to anything on the web- but should they?

Based on a Romanian case study, this book sheds light on the supply and demand of news and information in the current digital era, dominated by unprecedented dramatic changes. In addition to identifying patterns of journalistic reporting and news consumption, the book offers a thorough approach to how the classic theories in media and communication studies can be reinterpreted in the current attention economy and media abundance paradigm. The research data included in this book provide a snapshot of media consumption patterns and encompass experts’ views and predictions about how media habits and diets might evolve. The book will appeal to students, researchers, and scholars of media and communication studies, political communication, and journalism, as well as practitioners interested in a better understanding of news consumption patterns in a high-choice media environment.

Politicians rely on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to exercise political power. Citizens around the world also use these tools to vent political frustrations, join political groups and organize revolutions. Political activists blog to promote candidates, solicit and coordinate financial contributions and provide opportunities for volunteers. iPolitics describes the ways in which new media innovations change how politicians and citizens engage the political arena. Among other things, contributors to this volume analyze whether the public's political knowledge has increased or decreased in the new media era, the role television still plays in the information universe, the effect bloggers have had on the debate and outcome of healthcare reform, and the manner in which political leaders should navigate the new media environment. While the majority of contributors examine new media and politics in the United States, the volume also provides a unique comparative perspective on this relationship using cases from abroad.

'Society Online' is not exclusively devoted to a particular technology, or specifically the Internet, but to a range of technologies and technological possibilities labelled 'new media'.

The Psychology of journalism explores the psychological processes involved in the production, delivery, and consumption of news. With contributions from an international team of scholars with backgrounds in both media and psychology, the chapters provide theoretical and empirical evidence drawn from research in key areas in psychology to better understand why and how journalists and audience alike select, attend, understand, and co-construct meaning fromreported events.

The research presented in this manuscript contrasts a text-only and graphical display of news, to assess the personal and environmental factors affecting news preferences. This research was conducted in two stages. First, an online experiment and survey of 1,000 participants assessed the effects of political attitudes, personal demographics, and visual cues on news selection behaviors. Second, an eyetracking study evaluated the ocular and cognitive behaviors associated with the processing of each news display. Analyses specifically examined which factors influence (i) an individual's preferences for hard and soft news, (ii) an individual's preferences for specific news sources, and (iii) how stable or susceptible to change these preferences are over time. Results indicate that visual design, political attitudes, and personal demographics all affect the type of news and source selected. Specifically, a graphical news layout encourages the selection of soft news categories, though this is moderated by education. A graphical layout also enables more repeat selections to the same source. Furthermore, eyetracking shows that a graphical news format produces lower levels of attention and cognitive processing. Broader implications for the future of news display and news acquisition are discussed.