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The Perpetual Crisis of Journalism: Cable and Digital Revolutions

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Abstract

There pervasive sense today that journalism is in crisis is an expression of the perpetual crisis of American journalism. The crisis of American journalism is articulated through a narrative of decline that warns that the future of journalism will be worse than the past. Through discourse analysis of the introduction of new technologies and a new news anchor in journalism, this study shows that the discourse of crisis and grave doubts about the future of professional journalism are not new. Today and in previous eras, the past seems to represent the high mark of professional journalism in the USA, and the future of the news seems exceptionally uncertain. These perennial claims of the decline of journalism serve to reinforce the sacred ideals and standards of journalism.

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Notes

  1. See Waters et al. (1981), Time (1980a), Time (1980b), Waters and Ellis (1983), Griffith (1981).

  2. See Waters et al. (1981), Sheils et al. (1979), Henry and Phillips (1982).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Panorama Education, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Elizabeth Butler Breese

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  1. Elizabeth Butler Breese
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Correspondence to Elizabeth Butler Breese.

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Breese, E.B. The Perpetual Crisis of Journalism: Cable and Digital Revolutions. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 8, 49–59 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-015-0063-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-015-0063-1

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