Skip to content
You are not logged in |Login  
     
Limit search to available items
Record:   Prev Next
Resources
More Information
book
BookPrinted Material
Author Jacobs, Ronald N.

Title The space of opinion : media intellectuals and the public sphere / Ronald N. Jacobs, Eleanor Townsley.

Publication Info. New York : Oxford University Press, USA, [2011]
©2011

Item Status

Location Call No. Status OPAC Message Public Note Gift Note
 Moore Stacks  P92.U5 J33 2011    Available  ---
Description viii, 295 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Summary "While the newspaper op-ed page, the Sunday morning political talk shows on television, and the evening cable-news television lineup have an obvious and growing influence in American politics and political communication, social scientists and media scholars tend to be broadly critical of the rise of organized punditry during the 20th century without ever providing a close empirical analysis. What is the nature of the contemporary space of opinion? How has it developed historically? What kinds of people speak in this space? What styles of writing and speech do they use? What types of authority and expertise do they draw on? And what impact do their commentaries have on public debate? To describe and analyze this complex space of news media, Ronald Jacobs and Eleanor Townsley rely on enormous samples of opinion collected from newspapers and television shows during the first years of the last two Presidential administrations. They also employ biographical data on authors of opinion to connect specific argument styles to specific types of authors, and examine the distribution of authors and argument types across different formats. The result is a close mapping that reveals a massive expansion and differentiation of the opinion space. It tells a complex story of shifting intersections between journalism, politics, the academy, and the new sector of think tanks. It also reveals a proliferation of genres and forms of opinion; not only have the people who speak within the space of opinion become more diverse over time, but the formats of opinion-claims to authority, styles of speech, and modes of addressing publics-have also become more varied. Though Jacobs and Townsley find many changes, they also find continuities. Despite public anxieties, the project of objective journalism is alive and well, thriving in the older, more traditional formats, and if anything, the proliferation of newer formats has resulted in an intensified commitment (by some) to core journalistic values as clear points of difference that offer competing logics of distinction and professional justification. But the current moment does represent a real challenge as more and different shows compete to narrate politics in the most compelling, authoritative, and influential manner. By providing the first systematic study of media opinion and news commentary, The Space of Opinion will fill an important gap on research about media, politics, and the civil society and will attract readers in a number of disciplines, including sociology, communication, media studies, and political science"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-287) and index.
Contents 1. Media commentary and the space of opinion -- 2. A history of opinion in the U.S. media -- 3. Media and opinion formation: toward a new theory of deliberative politics -- 4. Who speaks in the space of opinion? -- 5. Formats and norms in the U.S. space of opinion -- 6. Rhetorics in the space of contemporary U.S. opinion -- 7. The Enron scandal -- 8. The war on terror -- 9. The future of opinion.
Subject Mass media -- United States -- History -- 21st century.
Mass media.
United States.
History.
Chronological Term 21st century
Subject Journalists -- United States -- Attitudes -- History -- 21st century.
Journalists.
Public opinion -- United States -- History -- 21st century.
Public opinion.
United States -- Politics and government -- 21st century.
Politics and government.
Added Author Townsley, Eleanor R., 1967-
ISBN 9780199797936 paperback acid-free paper
9780199797929 hardback acid-free paper
0199797927 hardback acid-free paper
0199797935 paperback acid-free paper
Standard No. 40019923894