Getting it wrong : debunking the greatest myths in American journalism / W. Joseph Campbell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Campbell, W. Joseph, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Journalistic ethics--United States--History--20th century.

Journalistic ethics.

Journalism--Objectivity--United States--History--20th century.

Journalism.

Press and politics--United States--History--20th century.

Press and politics.

Journalism--Social aspects.

History.

Sensationalism in journalism.

Journalism--Objectivity.

United States.

Sensationalism in journalism--United States--History--20th century.

Journalism--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

348 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cm

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2017]

Summary:

Many of American Journalism's Best-Known and most cherished stories are exaggerated, dubious, or apocryphal. They are media-driven myths, and they attribute to the news media and their practitioners far more power and influence than they truly exert. In Getting It Wrong, writer and scholar W. Joseph Campbell confronts and dismantles prominent media-driven myths, describing how they can feed stereotypes, distort understanding about the news media, and deflect blame from policymakers. Campbell debunks the notions that the Washington Post's Watergate reporting brought down Richard M. Nixon's corrupt presidency, that Walter Cronkite's characterization of the Vietnam War in 1968 shifted public opinion against the conflict, and that William Randolph Hearst vowed to "furnish the war" against Spain in 1898. This expanded second edition includes a new preface and new chapters about the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the haunting Napalm Girl photograph of the Vietnam War, and bogus quotations driven by the Internet and social media. Book jacket.

Contents:

"I'll furnish the war" : the making of a media myth

Fright beyond measure? : the myth of the war of the worlds

Murrow vs. McCarthy : timing makes the myth

TV viewers, radio listeners, and the myth of the first Kennedy-Nixon debate

The Bay of Pigs-New York Times suppression myth

Debunking the "Cronkite moment"

The nuanced myth : bra burning at Atlantic City

Picture power? : confronting the myths of the "napalm girl" photograph

It's all about the media : Watergate's heroic-journalist myth

The "fantasy panic" : the news media and the "crack-baby" myth

"She was fighting to the death" : mythmaking in Iraq

Hurricane Katrina and the myth of superlative reporting

Counterfeit quotations : swelling with a digital tide.

Notes:

Originally published: 2010.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Campbell, W. Joseph, author. Getting it wrong

ISBN:

9780520291270

0520291271

9780520291294

0520291298

OCLC:

952351424