Changing Models for Journalism

by Brant Houston

Exploring the deep transformation that journalism has undergone in the last decade, this book provides students, professors and working journalists with the background on the demise of traditional media in the U.S. and the changes happening in the digital newsrooms. Houston discusses today’s changes in journalism in the U.S., comparing and contrasting them with those around the world. Topics discussed include the decimation of the traditional newsrooms, contemporary corporate ownership and investors, the rise of bloggers and digital journalism, finding new audiences, the surge in nonprofit newsrooms and collaborations, investigative centers in the U.S. and globally, new model start-ups, and changing streams of revenue with the expansion of new technologies. The text also looks at the new relationship between journalism professionals and the academy, including the rise in content and stories supplied by university-based newsrooms. Houston, who has been on the frontline of these changes, also discusses the culture clashes and ethical dilemmas in cyber environments accompanied by new challenges to maintaining credibility and creating trust. To fully explore the rapid-fire changes in news media and online journalism in recent years, this book will be of interest to students of journalism and communications, working journalists, and professors helping prepare budding journalists for their future careers in journalism.

244 pages, Paperback

Published March 17, 2023

About the author

Brant Houston is the Knight Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where he teaches investigative and advanced reporting. He is the coauthor of “The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook” and author of “Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide.” Houston is chair of the board of directors of the Investigative News Network, a consortium of more than 50 nonprofit newsrooms in North America, and a co-founder of the Global Investigative Journalism Network.

He also is board president of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and serves on several other nonprofit journalism boards. Before becoming the Knight Chair, Houston was executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) for 12 years. Houston was an investigative journalist for 17 years before he joined IRE and won awards while at The Hartford Courant and at The Kansas City Star where he was part of the newsroom staff that won the Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of a hotel building collapse that killed 114 persons in 1981.

Reviews

[Jay Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a prescription, but a good overview of the current landscape of movements and shake ups of the (spiraling? innovative? promising? doomed?) journalism industry while providing some guidance into the hopes of nonprofit digital news as a way to regrow community knowledge and engagement