No Longer Newsworthy: How the Mainstream Media Abandoned the Working Class

by Christopher R. Martin

Until the recent political shift pushed workers back into the media spotlight, the mainstream media had largely ignored this significant part of American society in favor of the moneyed "upscale" consumer for more than four decades. Christopher R. Martin now reveals why and how the media lost sight of the American working class and the effects of it doing so.

The damning indictment of the mainstream media that flows through No Longer Newsworthy is a wakeup call about the critical role of the media in telling news stories about labor unions, workers, and working-class readers. As Martin charts the decline of labor reporting from the late 1960s onwards, he reveals the shift in news coverage as the mainstream media abandoned labor in favor of consumer and business interests. When newspapers, especially, wrote off working-class readers as useless for their business model, the American worker became invisible. In No Longer Newsworthy, Martin covers this shift in focus, the loss of political voice for the working class, and the emergence of a more conservative media in the form of Christian television, talk radio, Fox News, and conservative websites.

Now, with our fractured society and news media, Martin offers the mainstream media recommendations for how to push back against right-wing media and once again embrace the working class as critical to its audience and its democratic function.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Labor

272 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2019

Reviews

[Viral · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Cornell University Press for the free copy at BEA 2019!

I really enjoyed this book. It's a unique and thoughtful perspective on why the mainstream media was unable to see the 2016 election results coming, showing how for decades prominent newspapers and media channels have cut back on their coverage of workplace organizing and union efforts, becoming increasingly anti union internally and in their coverage, and prioritizing instead coverage about consumer lifestyle trends and the growing financial sector. In their place rose right wing talk radio as the main way working people informed themselves about politics, which hollowed out this traditionally left wing and progressive demographic. As someone who cares passionately about left organizing and media, and who follows all the labor media he can, this is a great look into why such coverage is limited to small independent media sites like Dissent, In These Times, and Jacobin. Highly reccomend for people looking for a fresh and powerful analysis of the growing reactionary movement in the U.S.

[Leif · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book - look, if you're missing communications studies, you're sleeping.

Here are the shifts Martin observes:
1) news about labour and the working class disappeared gradually, with the 1970s as a turning point
2) news became corporate and aggregated, with a corresponding neoliberal thrill to profits and a desire to market to the upwardly-aspirational consumer
3) news about labour was replaced by news about personal finance and human interest stories
4) visions of the working classes as citizens were replaced by visions of citizens as consumers
5) the working class, which has always been diverse, was re-conceptualized by politicians as white men
6) THE MESS WE ARE IN THAT YOU CAN PREDICT

That's a brief summary, but hey, it's been a few days since I read the book. It is fantastic. Read it!

[Dora Okeyo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was awakened by reading this book, it's not something profound as such because the author focuses on America and the role the media played in the shift of what kind and how they tell stories. What resonated with me is how influential a narrative is and more so if it's told over and over- and while reading this book I could not help but question the shift that's taken place in my country too and more so how technology and the internet has reinforced certain beliefs about the working class and now what we call the middle class.
This book is not something you read in one sitting, but rather one that calls for serious reflection and it makes you question your role as the audience in every story you hear and tell.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book for free, but this review is left of my own accord.

First off, Im probably right-center poltically. Libertarian-ish. So know that when I say "I dinged this a star because I almost didnt make it past the first ten minutes of this book because all it did in that time was talk about Trump and that's not what I wanted to read" I dont say that as someone who supports Trump. I really dislike the guy and I didnt vote for him. I just also really dislike Hillary. I say that as someone who thinks the introduction of the book should probably be redone to have less complaining about Trump since he isnt the focus of the book.
IF YOU ARE A TRUMP SUPPORTER and get discouraged by the first 10ish minutes, keep going. The rest of the book is worth the time it takes to read it. And it isnt all about Trump. In fact, every President (and several hopefuls) from Kennedy on get some attention.

As for the actual content of the book, I found it more interesting than I thought I would. And while the author gives information regarding his own life which leads me to believe I probably wouldnt agree with him on a great many things, he does a good job presenting his topic here. As a Christian, straight, white, male millennial, I found this quite interesting and will be recommending it to several people.

[Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christopher Martin provides a thought provoking study of how the news media’s shift in business strategy has, over time, altered the scope of news coverage. By aggressively soliciting subscribers attractive to big advertisers with new features, the media inadvertently sacrificed its’ commitment to balanced, verified coverage for a mass audience.

Martin looks back over the past 60 years to illustrate the effects of this evolution. Using specific examples, Martin shows how this development affected the way the media covers the working class. The cases he cites are well-documented and the points he makes are strong and insightful.

No Longer Newsworthy provides an enlightened view of how unintended consequences of business decisions often undermine the essence of the enterprise.

[Jay Dougherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book and I'm surprised I haven't seen more coverage of it. Data driven with engaging writing and shows the downfall of the US labor news beat into more "consumer" oriented reporting. In less than 220 pages, the author succinctly shows how u.s. media has followed politics in the last 40 years and vice versa.

[Shaun Richman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a frustrating read. It feels like the thesis was developed in 1999. It’s solid, but a few references to Trump and some begrudging acknowledgements of the existence of the internet don’t really help this book’s 21st century relevance.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I'm a little biased since this book was written by one of my graduate school professors, but I appreciated this book for how easy it was to follow the change in labor reporting. I've been interested in labor for a while and this book helped me to understand where reporting on it has gone and where it could and should go in the future. It was also nice to read something different for a class that wasn't an academic journal article.

[Michael Kosmides · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for journalists.

[Dylan Schouppe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely important topic. I only wish this book did an even deeper dive into nearly all mainstream media's bias against the working class, both as a subject of news as well as an audience.