shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us: 800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Interviews | November 19, 2009

Dave: IMG Finding John Irving: The Powells.com Interview

1 comment By Dave

johnirving[Editor's note: The following is a reprint of our 2005 interview with John Irving, whose new novel, Last Night in Twisted River, has just come out... Continue »
  1. $19.60 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Last Night in Twisted River

    John Irving
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$24.95
New Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
2 Burnside Journalism- General
1 Hawthorne Journalism- Media Studies
25 Local Warehouse Sociology- Media
3 Remote Warehouse Sociology- Media

More copies of this ISBN:

This title in other formats:

No Time to Think: The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-Hour News Cycle

by Howard Rosenberg

No Time to Think: The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-Hour News Cycle Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Review:

"Pulitzer Prize winner Rosenberg teams with veteran journalist Feldman to argue that the 24-hour news cycle has degraded the news media and failed consumers in this indignant, often reactionary examination. The authors' premise, that a demand for a constant flow of information via the Internet and cable news networks has led to inaccuracies in reporting, is a popular refrain and one with merit. The many quotes the authors have collected from media giants such as Jim Lehrer and Arianna Huffington present the challenges facing news outlets as changing technologies, most notably the Internet, interact with traditional media. However, the book's heavy-handed editorializing and unfocused gaze muddle the argument, and the many regressions into finger pointing and personal attacks seem out of place amongst such serious considerations. While the authors' ultimate conclusion-that consumer literacy is the best defense against biased and untrustworthy news-is well-taken, flippant dismissals of bloggers (referred to as 'nimble-fingered Crackerjacks'), multi-media reporting and alternative news sources undermine this larger point and don't provide any new answers." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Book News Annotation:

Rosenberg (a media columnist for the Los Angeles Times) and Feldman (a journalist and media consultant) critique contemporary news media. They examine newspapers, broadcast journalism, and new media (e.g. the blogs and other Internet resources). They are particularly concerned about how 24-hour cable news together with the blogs have contributed to an accelerated pace of news production and consumption that is pushing out nuance and accuracy. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Synopsis:

This witty, incisiveand yes, angrywork measures lasting fallout from the 24-hour news cycle: that media mushroom cloud, released into our biosphere in 1980 with the arrival of CNN.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
JohnnyC, November 19, 2008 (view all comments by JohnnyC)
The strength of any argument is directly related to the articulation of that argument. I'm afraid that Rosenberg and Feldman's 211 page rant fails to make a convincing argument because it is so poorly written. The book is an angry diatribe against the News industry for being seduced by speed rather than facts, predicated by the 24/7 news cycle best exemplified by CNN. This is certainly a worthy topic, but the book's narrative style, which is cross between the rhetoric of Jerry Seinfeld and the logic of Bill O'Reilly, fails to present itself in a serious way. It's full of jargon, pseudo-street talk and anger. As a result, the book offers some good examples of bad reportage and the increasing use of opinion as factual information, but if fails to connect our changing technology to the larger picture, offering at the end only a "dose of hope". Our addiction to speed is clearly related to our access and hunger for faster technologies. This book does nothing to enlighten or inform the reader beyond the superficial. A Pulizer prize winner should have done a better job.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(4 of 8 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780826429315
Subtitle:
The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-Hour News Cycle
Author:
Rosenberg, Howard
Author:
Feldman, Charles
Author:
Feldman, Charles S.
Author:
Rosenberg, Howard
Publisher:
Continuum
Subject:
Media Studies
Subject:
Television - History & Criticism
Subject:
Journalism
Subject:
Television broadcasting of news
Subject:
Media Studies - Electronic Media
Subject:
Journalism -- Objectivity -- United States.
Publication Date:
October 2008
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
226
Dimensions:
9.18x6.32x.90 in. 1.08 lbs.
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. $4.50 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Beyond the Valley of Thorns: The Land of Elyon, Book Two (Land of Elyon #02)

    Patrick Carman
  2. $5.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    Lucky

    Rachel Vail
  3. $15.99 New Hardcover add to wish list

    Climate Change with CDROM and Poster (DK Eyewitness Books)

    John Woodward
  4. $24.99 New Hardcover add to wish list

    One Million Things: A Visual Encyclopedia

    DK Publishing
  5. $11.50 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Ever

    Gail Carson Levine
  6. $11.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Ghostgirl

    Tonya Hurley
back to top

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.