All industry must go through evolution. Education and politics seem to change on a daily basis, and even the long-standing career of academia itself is forced to evolve to keep up with technology and digital media. But what does it mean when careers and roles seem to die out? Do they die out, or do they evolve and what is the impact of this on society as a whole?

Professor Edd Applegate opens up discussion around this issue, considering how journalism and investigative journalism have undergone significant change.

So, in the author’s own words…

Disclaimer: The views and opinions below are the authors own and are not representative of the Peter Lang Group.

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According to the current Occupational Outlook Handbook, employment for reporters and other journalists is negative for the next 10 years. In fact, it is predicted that employment for these individuals will decline 3 percent. This means almost 2,000 jobs will be lost.

As if this is not grave enough, newspapers and magazines have been cutting editorial positions for the past several years. For instance, in 2021, according to the Pew Research Center, employment in media newsrooms in the United States fell 26 percent between 2008 and 2020. Unfortunately, during this period, investigative journalists were some of the first individuals in newsrooms to lose their jobs.

Fortunately, several media outlets have been founded for investigative journalists and writers who spend hours, days, weeks, or months investigating one or more stories. Unfortunately, fewer individuals read or view what these journalists uncover primarily because fewer individuals actually subscribe to or watch the media in which the stories appear.

Yet, this form of journalism is essential if individuals expect a democratic society to function properly. Without question, investigative journalists, especially those who report what they have uncovered without including their opinions, play an important role in a democratic society, particularly when they uncover unethical and/or illegal activity by businesses, state, or federal employees. Such reporting generally results in one or more individuals being charged with a crime and/or a new law addressing the issue being written and passed.

The book, Investigative Journalism in the United States: A History, with Profiles of Journalists and Writers Who Practiced the Form not only presents a history of the subject, but includes biographies of numerous journalists and writers who devoted their professional careers to uncovering wrongdoing by businesses, state, and/or federal employees, as well as others.

The book should be added to every college and university library’s reference section. Students who are emphasizing some area of journalism or mass communications more than likely will find it a valuable resource.

Professor Edd Applegate

Eva Berger, author of Context Blindness, received the Erving Goffman Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Social Interaction.

Carolyn Wiebe and Susan Maushart received the Edmund S. Carpenter Award for Career Achievement in Editing in the Field of Media Ecology for their work on the two volumes of Christine Nystrom’s The Genes of Culture.

Context Blindness and The Genes of Culture are part of the Understanding Media Ecology series, edited by Lance Strate. To learn more about the awards, go to https://www.media-ecology.org/awards.

The Trustees of the Institute of General Semantics have awarded the 2021 Samuel I. Hayakawa Book Prize to Carolyn Wiebe and Susan Maushart (Eds.) for The Genes of Culture: Towards a Theory of Symbols, Meaning and Media Volumes One and Two. First given in 2009, the Institute of General Semantics awards the S. I. Hayakawa Book Prize to the most outstanding work published in the past five years on topics of direct relevance to the discipline of general semantics.

Learn more at https://www.generalsemantics.org/Media-Press-Publications/12965291

Australian Studies books shortlisted for ASAL’s Alvie Egan Award 2019 @austlit17 We are pleased to have received word that Volumes 1 and 2 in the Australian Studies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives series edited by Anne Brewster have both been shortlisted for the Association for the Study of Australian Literature‘s Alvie Egan Award 2019! The Mabo Turn in Australian Fiction
Geoff Rodoreda
ISBN:978-1-78707-264-0 
Indigenous Cultural Capital: Postcolonial Narratives in Australian Children’s Literature
Xu Daozhi
ISBN:978-1-78707-077-6 
The award is for the best first book of literary scholarship by an early career researcher (ECR) on an Australian subject, published in the preceding two calendar years. The winner will be announced at ASAL’s annual conference in Perth on 2-5 July 2019. Thank you to ASAL for the honour, and congratulations to both authors and the series editor! Read more about the award here. 

Media Ecology. An Approach to Understanding the Human Condition by Dr. Lance Strate has won the 2018 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology. The award was announced at the 19th Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association, held June 21-24, 2018 at the University of Maine, USA. Named for the Canadian media studies and communications theorist, the Marshall McLuhan Award has been given annually since 2000 by the Media Ecology Association (MEA). Past recipients include Douglas Rushkoff and Neil Postman.

In Media Ecology, Dr. Strate provides a long-awaited introduction to media ecology that serves both readers who are new to the subject and those who enjoy a great deal of familiarity with it. It presents a clear explanation of an intellectual tradition concerned with much more than understanding media, but rather with understanding the conditions that shape us as human beings, drive human history, and determine the prospects for our survial as a species, The book was published by Peter Lang in 2017 in its Understanding Media Ecology series.

Peter Lang is proud to announce The American Journalist in the Digital Age: A Half-Century Perspective by Lars Willnat, David H. Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit was granted a Sigma Delta Chi Award 2017. This award was given from the Society of Professional Journalists, the largest and oldest association of U.S. journalists which has honored exceptional contributions to professional journalism in various categories since 1932. The work, published by Peter Lang in 2017 as volume 17 of its Mass Communication and Journalism series, documents the changes that have occurred in U.S. journalism in the past decade, due to the rise of new communication technologies and social media. It was the only book distinguished with a Sigma Delta Chi Award 2017 in the ’Research about Journalism’ category.