A fascinating, behind-the-scenes story of the battle to build a newspaper that has found a unique place in modern journalism.

The book that made "McDonaldization" part of the lexicon of contemporary sociological theory, read by hundreds of thousands of students, is now in its Ninth Edition! George Ritzer's seminal work of critical sociology, The McDonaldization of Society, continues to stand as one of the pillars of modern day sociological thought. Building on the argument that that the fast food restaurant has become the model for the rationalization process today, this book links theory to contemporary life in a globalized world and resonates with students in a way that few other books do. Ritzer opens students’ eyes to many current issues and shows how McDonaldization’s principles apply to other settings, especially in the areas of consumption and globalization. Through vivid story-telling prose, Ritzer provides an insightful introduction to this fascinating topic and aids students' critical development. This new edition has been fully updated to include a new focus on McDonaldization in the digital world.

“An original American story of a tough, embattled media player with uncanny gifts for giving the public what they want.” —Publishers Weekly In The Godfather of Tabloid, Jack Vitek explores the life and remarkable career of Generoso Pope Jr. and the founding of the most famous tabloid of all—the National Enquirer. Upon graduating from MIT, Pope worked briefly for the CIA until he purchased the New York Enquirer with dubious financial help from mob boss Frank Costello. Working tirelessly and cultivating a mix of American journalists (some of whom, surprisingly, were Pulitzer Prize winners) and buccaneering Brits from Fleet Street who would do anything to get a story, Pope changed the name, format, and content of the modest weekly newspaper until it resembled nothing America had ever seen before. Pope was a man of contradictions: he would fire someone for merely disagreeing with him in a meeting (once firing an editor in the middle of his birthday party), and yet he spent upwards of a million dollars a year to bring the world’s tallest Christmas tree to the Enquirer offices in Lantana, Florida, for the enjoyment of the local citizens. Driven, tyrannical, and ruthless in his pursuit of creating an empire, Pope changed the look and content of supermarket tabloid media, and the industry still bears his stamp. Grounded in interviews with many of Pope’s supporters, detractors, and associates, The Godfather of Tabloid is the first comprehensive biography of the man who created a genre and changed the world of publishing forever. “An engaging saga of one man’s obsessive devotion to creating an entertaining alternative universe.” —The Wall Street Journal

Whatever Happened to the Washington Reporters, 1978–2012, is the first book to comprehensively examine career patterns in American journalism. In 1978 Brookings Senior Fellow Stephen Hess surveyed 450 journalists who were covering national government for U.S. commercial news organizations. His study became the award-winning The Washington Reporters (Brookings, 1981), the first volume in his Newswork series. Now, a generation later, Hess and his team from Brookings and the George Washington University have tracked down 90 percent of the original group, interviewing 283, some as far afield as France, England, Italy, and Australia. What happened to the reporters within their organizations? Did they change jobs? Move from reporter to editor or producer? Jump from one type of medium to another—from print to TV? Did they remain in Washington or go somewhere else? Which ones left journalism? Why? Where did they go? A few of them have become quite famous, including television correspondents Ted Koppel, Sam Donaldson, Brit Hume, Carole Simpson, Judy Woodruff, and Marvin Kalb; some have become editors or publishers of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, or Baltimore Sun; some have had substantial careers outside of journalism. Most, however, did not become household names. The book is designed as a series of self-contained essays, each concentrating on one characteristic, such as age, gender, or place of employment, including newspapers, television networks, wire services, and niche publications. The reporters speak for themselves. When all of these lively portraits are analyzed—one by one—the results are surprisingly different from what journalists and sociologists in 1978 had predicted. Praise for other books in the Newswork series: International News and Foreign Correspondents “It is not much in vogue to speak of things like the public trust, but thankfully Stephen Hess is old fashioned. He reminds us in this valuable and provocative book that journalism is a public trust, providing the basic information on which citizens in a democracy vote, or tune out.”—Ken Auletta, The New Yorker “Regardless of one’s view of American news media, one cannot help but be influenced by the information Stephen Hess puts forth in International News and Foreign Correspondents. After reading this book, it is not likely one will scan the newspaper or watch television news in the same way again.”—International Affairs Review “Readers of all backgrounds will find this a provocative text.”—The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics Live from Capitol Hill “Hess is a treasure—a Washington insider with a sharp sense of the important, the interesting, and the mythological. This book is essential reading for Hill practitioners, journalists, and scholars of Congress and the media.”—Steven S. Smith, Washington University The Washington Reporters “A meticulously researched piece of anthropology that represents the first major look at the men and women who cover the government since Leo C. Rosten’s classic 1937 book.”—Newsweek

Writing with anger but with a deep affection for the trade, he examines the growing economic pressures within the industry, the roots of the managerial revolution, and the impact of marketplace journalism on the operation of the newsroom and employee morale.

The citizens of Western democracies have been relentlessly propagandized, lied to, and fed a steady diet of distortions and untruths by their media for decades. Editor Michael Walsh brings together a stellar collection of critical thinkers and writers to explain how and why this is happening, its negative effects on our democracies, and what we can do to reverse it. An informed electorate is a prerequisite for free and fair elections. But rather than striving for accuracy and objectivity, today’s journalists openly celebrate the death of objectivity, arguing that they have a “higher duty” to reject the conservatism, police speech, and suppress news that contradicts the liberal narrative. Now, on the heels of his magisterial volume Against the Great Reset, editor Michael Walsh presents Against the Corporate Media, a collection of more than forty essays on the decline and fall of the American and international news media. The book’s list of distinguished contributors includes Lance Morrow, Andrew Klavan, John O’Sullivan, Elizabeth Nickson, Monica Crowley, Charlie Kirk, Glenn Reynolds, Steven F. Hayward, John Fund, Armond White, Michael Ramirez, Walsh, and others. Readers around the world deserve to know how badly their media has been corrupted, how eagerly they have embraced the role of official propagandists, and what a threat to democracy they have become. This book marks an important strike against the corporate media, and its unholy alliance with the enemies of freedom everywhere.

This volume combines the study of newspaper management & operation with the leadership of change in organizations, providing a unique perspective on change in media organizations. For scholars & students in journalism & media management.