Going live : getting the news right in a real-time, online world /

Seib (Marquette Univ.) uses his extensive experience as a newspaper and TV journalist and insights garnered from his numerous books on journalism and ethics to examine the technological developments that have forever altered news coverage in the US. Explaining first how the technologies of radio and television have shifted the role of journalism from reporting events to presenting events as they are happening ("real time" reporting), he describes how "going live" makes the reporter and editor part of the story rather than the critical gatherer of news and thus short circuits the editorial process and makes it almost impossible for journalists to fulfill their traditional roles of conveyors of fair and accurate information. Though many others have described and decried the shift of news coverage from a journalistic to an entertainment medium, Seib goes beyond lament and plunges into what he sees as the next major news medium--the Web. He analyzes what happens to news organizations--their owners, editors, reporters--and to the public when everything, the event, the reporting, the response, is available online. This thoughtful, readable book covers almost every aspect of what is happening--and Seib expects to happen--to journalism in the 21st century. All collections. R. Cathcart emeritus, CUNY Queens College

Two new books on journalism examine the enduring storytelling function of the profession, which these days conveys timeless elements of human existence with the latest technology-driven trends that promise faster, if not always more analytical, news gathering. Lule, a journalism professor and former reporter, looks at the connection between modern news gathering and age-old mythology. While media critics might readily accept the notion of modern media as purveyors of untrue stories, Lule is referring here to myths as a means of conveying the great truths of life. Lule focuses on seven particular myths that surface in news reporting: myths of the victim, the scapegoat, the hero, the good mother, the trickster, the other world, and the flood. Coverage of natural disasters, obviously, represents the flood myth. Lule's more controversial parallels include the trickster myth and news coverage of Mike Tyson's rape trial, and the scapegoat myth and the violent death of Black Panther Huey Newton. Coverage of these black men reinforced social conventions and issued public condemnations of their lifestyles in ways that distorted news gathering. Lule also examines the hero myth in relation to the "godding up" of Mark McGwire, and the good mother myth in coverage of Mother Teresa, in this fascinating look at timeless and modern storytelling. Seib, a journalism professor, looks at the challenges to news delivery, profits, and ethics borne of new technology that encourages speed over accuracy. Seib sees a convergence in news gathering styles of various media that is inspired by computer-based media. Web TV is the best example of the trend that merges the slick presentation of television news with the "almost infinite information-providing capacity of the Internet." Faced with competitive pressures, many traditional news outlets (with newspapers leading the way) have developed their own Web sites, including linkages to other sites and sources, blurring the line between professional news organizations and others. Seib conveys the progression in live coverage from the Vietnam War as the "living room war" to the Gulf War as the "first live war" to the 1999 war in Kosovo as the "first Web war." This is a compelling look at how news gathering is changing, for better and worse.--Vanessa Bush

Seib (Campaigns and Conscience, not reviewed) examines the professional, commercial, and ethical pressures on the news media exerted by technologies that make the delivery of information both instantaneous and global. The author worries about the news media’s pervasive preference for reporting events as they are happening: “Going live,” he says, “is exciting and dramatic. But is it good journalism?” His answer, of course, is primarily negative. Unfolding news is news that by definition has not emerged from an editorial process and thereby makes difficult if not impossible the application of the standards of impartiality that have long been the hallmarks of principled journalism. A number of Seib’s questions are patently rhetorical—e.g., “Should emphasis on speed of delivery override judgments about relevance and taste?” Nonetheless, he raises enough serious questions about the rapidly changing news business to sober anyone but Matt Drudge (who appears throughout as a sort of cyber-bogeyman whose gleeful disregard for traditional journalistic ethics Seib finds most reprehensible). One of the author’s principal objectives is to outline the concept of “convergence”—what he considers the inevitable fusion of print, cable television, and Internet news media. He sketches the obvious advantages to consumers of this imminent merger (improvements in “interactivity” and in the dissemination—via online links—of vast amounts of supplementary information) but warns that editorial discretion must play a more prominent role than it currently does among electronic news outlets. He also identifies new responsibilities that citizens must assume in the information age. There is an occasional “gee-whiz” tone in much of Seib’s descriptions of the (unquestionably exciting) possibilities of online news. And current events sometimes undercut him, as well: He declares, for instance, that exit polling has become so precise in presidential elections that 1948-like embarrassments (Dewey Defeats Truman!) are no longer much of a worry. An urgent and cogent (if somewhat breathless) reminder that journalistic ethics must attempt to keep pace with the explosive technological revolution.