Newsworkers: Toward a History of the Rank and File - Hanno Hardt - Hardcover

Excerpt from introduction--- ...Traditional press historians have concentrated primarily on the structure of the institution and its major forces as well as on the importance of protect¬ing content, instead of addressing the issue of production in terms of labor and newsworkers.They have done so under ideological conditions that have generated a top-down history of the press that privileged property and own¬ership at the expense of an understanding of newswork. This book addresses the need for a history of newsworkers by focusing on a wide range of issues that relate to the conditions of journalism history as well as to the professional practices of newsroom workers and others in their specific historical situation. The result is a series of essays that provide indi¬vidual visions of newsworkers and collectively offer possibilities for a recon-ceptualization of press history as a history of work. The introductory essay, by Hanno Hardt, explores the conditions of media history in the context of intellectual and theoretical developments in American historiography, its marginal existence, despite the recognized importance of communication in the development of the United States, and the challenges of theories of culture and society that have affected considera¬tions of media and communication across a number of disciplines.... What most of us know about media history begins and ends with Citizen Kane. The exploits of media moguls and visionary business leaders - these are the tales that fill media histories in the United States. What's missing is a crucial part of the picture : the rank and file of journalism, and the conditions under which they produced and participated in the business off journalism. Newsworkers supplies this side of the story. Focusing on the period from the 1850s through the 1930s, the contributors show how issues of labor and class have been far more important in the formation of media institutions than previous accounts concede. These essays recover the history of ethnic and cultural diversity - including the contributions of women - that have enriched the process of communication.--(Source of description unspecified.) Focusing on the period from the 1850s through the 1930s, this text shows how labour and class have been more important in the formation of media institutions than previous accounts concede.