Science Journalism

Most Americans consider a free press essential to democratic society - either as an independent watchdog against governmental abuse of power or as a wide-open marketplace of ideas. But few understand that far-reaching public policies have shaped the news citizens receive. In an age when mass communication ranges from independent cable channels to the Internet, it is essential to assess these policies and their effects if we want the media to continue fulfilling their role.

Marilyn Johnson was enthralled by the remarkable lives that were marching out of this world - so she sought out the best obits in the English language and the people who spent their lives writing about the dead. She surveyed the darkest corners of Internet chat rooms, and made a pilgrimage to London to savor the most caustic and literate obits of all. Now she leads us on a compelling journey into the cult and culture behind the obituary page and the unusual lives we don't quite appreciate until they're gone.

This year has seen unprecedented scrutiny of Rupert Murdoch’s empire in Britain. But what about in Australia, where he owns 70 per cent of the press? In Bad News, Robert Manne investigates Murdoch’s lead political voice here, the Australian newspaper, and how it shapes debate. Since 2002, under the editorship of Chris Mitchell, the Australian has come to see itself as judge, jury and would-be executioner of leaders and policies. Is this a dangerous case of power without responsibility?

Is John McCain "for real?" That's the question David Foster Wallace set out to explore when he first climbed aboard Senator McCain's campaign caravan in February 2000. It was a moment when McCain was increasingly perceived as a harbinger of change, the anticandidate whose goal was "to inspire young Americans to devote themselves to causes greater than their own self-interest".

Bill Clinton is the most investigated president since Richard Nixon - facing inquiries into Whitewater, campaign fundraising abuses, and sexual misconduct - and yet he began 1998 with approval ratings as high as those of Ronald Reagan. In Spin Cycle, award-winning Washington Post reporter Howard Kurtz reveals the inside workings of Clinton's well-oiled propaganda machine - arguably the most successful team of White House spin doctors in history.

Beginning with America’s first newspaper, investigative reporting has provided journalism with its most significant achievements and challenging controversies. In The Evolution of American Investigative Journalism, James L. Aucoin provides listeners with the first comprehensive history of investigative journalism.

After almost four decades of life on the road, Charles Kuralt has visited every corner of the country, sharing with us his fascinating encounters with the people he's met along the way. Now in Charles Kuralt's Summer, he douses the heat with breezy tales of our most extraordinary summer celebrations.

As the public appetite for intimate details about celebrities has grown, Lysa Moskowitz-Mateu and David LaFontaine have traveled the continent in search of headline stories for the Star, National Enquirer, and Globe. Invading the privacy of others has become their way of life. By their own account, tabloid reporters are the "vermin media" whose outrageous quests for the inside scoop know no bounds.

"Dawn, and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night on the plain outside Korem, it lights up a biblical famine, now, in the twentieth century." Those words opened Michael Buerk's first report on the Ethiopian famine for the 6 o'clock news on October 24th, 1984. His reports sent shock waves round the world. The Live Aid concert, a direct consequence of Bob Geldof watching that broadcast, was watched by half the planet.

Sabine Heinlein spent almost a year reporting at "The Farm", a program for mental patients at the notorious Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens. Originally designed to teach its "members" confidence and skills by caring for animals and plants, the Farm had long become a dysfunctional hoarder's den. The patients sat idly on chairs in a grimy dayroom filled with the therapist's "collectibles" and garbage.

Whatever happened to journalism? When did American news media go from the respected, trusted purveyor of truth to anything but? How did we go from the “Glory Days of Television News” to today’s growing distrust and derision of “the media?” Is the Internet our only journalistic hope? Can we remake the media into a meaningful part of the check-and-balances system fundamental to the democratic principles on which this country was founded?

In the era of Watergate and rising feminist awareness, reporter Pam Zekman was queen of the muckrakers. Her biggest investigation: buy a bar, document the inevitable city department shakedowns and bribes, and publicly document Chicago’s institutionalized corruption. Her epic story changed Chicago and also raised serious questions about the future of journalism.

Throughout his almost four decades of life on the road, Charles Kuralt has introduced us to people and places that have warmed our hearts. Now in Charles Kuralt's Spring, he disposes with winter's chill by recounting some of the most miraculous rites of spring he has witnessed over the years.

This audiobook contains three selected essays from around 1918 that focus on the ethical issues of newspaper journalism. It provides a fascinating glimpse into ethical issues that still confront us a century later.

Best-selling author David Shields analyzed over a decade’s worth of front-page war photographs from The New York Times and came to a shocking conclusion: The photo-editing process of the “paper of record”, by way of pretty, heroic, and lavishly aesthetic image selection, pulls the wool over the eyes of its readers; Shields forces us to face not only the the media's complicity in dubious and catastrophic military campaigns but our own as well.

Writer and journo-tech pioneer Christine Marie Nielsen didn't think she'd be returning to her native city of Milwaukee (oft called the most segregated city in the US in terms of socio-economic and racial lines), but because of family income constraints and a resulting need to help her parents, she does. While there, she looks into systemic problems and what makes the city tick, but she also finds herself being pulled back into a cycle of poverty.

Throughout his almost four decades of life on the road, Charles Kuralt has introduced us to people and places that have warmed our hearts. Now in Charles Kuralt's Christmas, he retraces his most memorable Christmas sojourns to remind us of the many marvelous ways that we celebrate this special holiday.

Hemos realizado aquí, un análisis teórico de un número considerable de las investigaciones periodísticas realizadas con la cámara oculta en Argentina, circunscribiéndolas al marco jurídico vigente y a las pautas éticas profesionales y señalando los casos en que estos límites son traspasados.