Search results for ""Author Silvio Waisbord""

Current anxiety about the future of news makes it opportune to revisit the notion of professionalism in journalism. Media expert Silvio Waisbord takes this pressing issue as his theme and argues that “professional journalism” is both a normative and analytical notion. It refers to reporting that observes certain ethical standards as well as to collective efforts by journalists to exercise control over the news. Professionalism should not be narrowly associated with the normative ideal as it historically developed in the West during the past century. Instead, it needs to be approached as a valuable concept to throw into sharp relief how journalists define conditions and rules of work within certain settings. Professionalization is about the specialization of labor and control of occupational practice. These issues are important, particularly amidst the combination of political, technological and economic trends that have profoundly unsettled the foundations of modern journalism. By doing so, they have stimulated the reinvention of professionalism. This engaging and insightful book critically examines the meanings, expectations, and critiques of professional journalism in a global context.

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Since the 1980s, investigative journalism has undergone startling development in South America, where repressive regimes have long relegated such reporting to marginal publications or underground outlets. Watchdog Journalism in South America explores the rise of critical journalism in four countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. Drawing upon interviews with journalists and editors and analyzing selected news stories from each country, Silvio Waisbord offers a unique look at the significant differences between critical reporting in developing democracies and that already in place in the United States and European democracies. As Waisbord demonstrates, critical reporting in South America can be better understood as watchdog journalism than as investigative reporting as understood in the tradition of Anglo-American journalism. Examining the historical absence of a muckraking press, he argues that watchdog journalism represents new political and media dynamics and discusses the emergence of a new journalistic culture and its contributions to the quality of democracy and public debates about morality, truth, and accountability.

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Communication studies is a fragmented field. As a result of its roots in various disciplinary traditions, it is built on fluid intellectual boundaries with no theoretical or analytical center. Should we worry about this state of dispersion or be concerned that the discipline does not meet the basic conditions that define an academic field of inquiry? Silvio Waisbord argues that communication studies is a post-discipline and that it is impossible to transcend fragmentation and specialization through a single project of intellectual unity. What brings communication studies together is an institutional architecture of academic units, professional associations, and journals, rather than a shared commitment to a common body of knowledge, questions, and debates. This should not, Waisbord argues, be a matter of concern. Communication studies is better served by recognizing dispersion, embracing pluralism, fostering cross-cutting lines of inquiry, and tackling real-world problems, rather than hoping to meet conditions which would qualify it as a discipline. Communication: A Post-Discipline is important reading for scholars and advanced students of communication studies, as well as anyone interested in the state of this fascinating and vital academic field.

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Where is sociology in contemporary media studies? How do sociological questions and arguments shape media analysis? These are the questions addressed in this timely collection on media sociology. Sociology was fundamental in defining the analytical boundaries of early media studies, from the study of news and communities to media effects and public opinion, in the first half of the last century. Since then, media sociology has experienced significant changes that have led to new theoretical questions and thematic priorities. This book aims to reassess the past and present relationship between media studies and sociology. With original contributions from leading scholars, Media Sociology: A Reappraisal examines the significance of sociology for the study of media economics, industries, news, audiences, journalism, and digital technologies, and the links between media and race, gender, and class. As a whole, this much-needed volume takes a retrospective view to trace the evolution of media sociology and assess current research directions.

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Contemporary societies demand clear-minded, evidence-based ideas to address complex social issues. Communication scholarship has a rich trove of knowledge and experiences to help address such problems. In this passionately argued manifesto, Silvio Waisbord examines public scholarship in communication studies and its potential for contributing to the common good. He discusses the various ways scholars seek to serve the public as practitioners, experts, advocates, activists and critics, and underscores their significant contribution which has not, to date, been properly supported or recognized. Only by tackling academic institutional politics, he argues, will it be possible to strengthen public scholarship as central to the mission of communication studies. The Communication Manifesto is a roadmap to action and will inspire communication scholars and students to be public citizens, thereby connecting their work and expertise to the causes of solidarity, humanity and social justice.

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Estados Unidos alimenta pasiones, sueños y fascinación. Por más que nunca se haya pisado el país, cualquiera cree saber cómo es a raíz del abundante caudal de imágenes que inundan las series de televisión, las películas, las novelas, los discursos políticos, las marcas y la publicidad. Sin embargo, quien llega al país norteamericano experimenta un fuerte choque entre sus ideas previas y la realidad.El imperio de la utopía ofrece una radiografía de la sociedad estadounidense actual que ayuda a comprender sus contradicciones históricas y su poder para construir mitos y ocultar realidades. A partir del análisis de temas clave como el optimismo, el individualismo, la religión, la seguridad, el nacionalismo, la política, la democracia y las desigualdades sociales, este libro desentraña los claroscuros de una tierra prometida y acogedora y, al tiempo, cruel y devastadora.

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Contemporary societies demand clear-minded, evidence-based ideas to address complex social issues. Communication scholarship has a rich trove of knowledge and experiences to help address such problems. In this passionately argued manifesto, Silvio Waisbord examines public scholarship in communication studies and its potential for contributing to the common good. He discusses the various ways scholars seek to serve the public as practitioners, experts, advocates, activists and critics, and underscores their significant contribution which has not, to date, been properly supported or recognized. Only by tackling academic institutional politics, he argues, will it be possible to strengthen public scholarship as central to the mission of communication studies. The Communication Manifesto is a roadmap to action and will inspire communication scholars and students to be public citizens, thereby connecting their work and expertise to the causes of solidarity, humanity and social justice.

Read more less

Communication studies is a fragmented field. As a result of its roots in various disciplinary traditions, it is built on fluid intellectual boundaries with no theoretical or analytical center. Should we worry about this state of dispersion or be concerned that the discipline does not meet the basic conditions that define an academic field of inquiry? Silvio Waisbord argues that communication studies is a post-discipline and that it is impossible to transcend fragmentation and specialization through a single project of intellectual unity. What brings communication studies together is an institutional architecture of academic units, professional associations, and journals, rather than a shared commitment to a common body of knowledge, questions, and debates. This should not, Waisbord argues, be a matter of concern. Communication studies is better served by recognizing dispersion, embracing pluralism, fostering cross-cutting lines of inquiry, and tackling real-world problems, rather than hoping to meet conditions which would qualify it as a discipline. Communication: A Post-Discipline is important reading for scholars and advanced students of communication studies, as well as anyone interested in the state of this fascinating and vital academic field.

Read more less

Where is sociology in contemporary media studies? How do sociological questions and arguments shape media analysis? These are the questions addressed in this timely collection on media sociology. Sociology was fundamental in defining the analytical boundaries of early media studies, from the study of news and communities to media effects and public opinion, in the first half of the last century. Since then, media sociology has experienced significant changes that have led to new theoretical questions and thematic priorities. This book aims to reassess the past and present relationship between media studies and sociology. With original contributions from leading scholars, Media Sociology: A Reappraisal examines the significance of sociology for the study of media economics, industries, news, audiences, journalism, and digital technologies, and the links between media and race, gender, and class. As a whole, this much-needed volume takes a retrospective view to trace the evolution of media sociology and assess current research directions.

Read more less

Since the 1980s, investigative journalism has undergone startling development in South America, where repressive regimes have long relegated such reporting to marginal publications or underground outlets. Watchdog Journalism in South America explores the rise of critical journalism in four countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. Drawing upon interviews with journalists and editors and analyzing selected news stories from each country, Silvio Waisbord offers a unique look at the significant differences between critical reporting in developing democracies and that already in place in the United States and European democracies. As Waisbord demonstrates, critical reporting in South America can be better understood as watchdog journalism than as investigative reporting as understood in the tradition of Anglo-American journalism. Examining the historical absence of a muckraking press, he argues that watchdog journalism represents new political and media dynamics and discusses the emergence of a new journalistic culture and its contributions to the quality of democracy and public debates about morality, truth, and accountability.

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The globalization of media industries that began during the 1980s and 1990s occurred at the same time as the establishment of or return to democratic forms of government in many Latin American countries. In this volume of specially commissioned essays, thirteen well-known media experts examine how the intersection of globalization and democratization has transformed media systems and policies throughout Latin America. Following an extensive overview by editors Elizabeth Fox and Silvio Waisbord, the contributors investigate the interaction of local politics and global media in individual Latin American countries. Some of the issues they discuss include the privatization and liberalization of the media, the rise of media conglomerates, the impact of trade agreements on media industries, the role of the state, the mediazation of politics, the state of public television, and the role of domestic and global forces. The contributors address these topics with a variety of theoretical approaches, combining institutional, historical, economic, and legal perspectives.

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International in scope, The Handbook of Global Health Communication offers a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the role of communication processes in global public health, development and social change Brings together 32 contributions from well-respected scholars and practitioners in the field, addressing a wide range of communication approaches in current global health programs Offers an integrated view that links communication to the strengthening of health services, the involvement of affected communities in shaping health policies and improving care, and the empowerment of citizens in making decisions about health Adopts a broad understanding of communication that goes beyond conventional divisions between informational and participatory approaches

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*Winner of the AEJMC-Knudson Latin America Prize 2017* Social movements throughout contemporary Latin America are successfully influencing and shaping media policy. In this highly original, detailed, and in-depth study, Silvio Waisbord and María Soledad Segura scrutinize the goals, tactics, and impact of civic media movements across the region, demonstrating the full extent of media activism on domestic policy and politics. Media Movements goes beyond simple conceptions of 'the national' versus 'the global' to reveal the complicated process of media policy-making, and to evaluate the significance of local political elites and citizens, global actors, and legal frameworks. With success rates varying across the region, the authors offer an assessment of the impact of citizens' mobilization on policy-making, as well as the effects of legislation on ownership, funding, community media, non-profit media, and public media.

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