Book Reviews
Two years after covering the Arab Spring, CBC reporter Nahlah Ayed's memoir has been released in paperback with a new epilogue chronicling the civil war in Syria and her return to Tahrir Square. A Thousand Farewells offers a valuable perspective for journalists.
"As “the mother corp” faces the potential loss of broadcast rights for Hockey Night in Canada, veteran broadcaster and media strategist Wade Rowland argues we have less than two years to find a way to save CBC/Radio-Canada: the cornerstone of Canadian culture and an institution many regard as the glue that holds the country together." Read an excerpt from his new book Saving the CBC: Balancing Profit and Public Service.
Canadian Television: Text and Context is an "exemplary collection" of essays and is about both the substance and practice of television studies, and offers myriad solutions to some of the above challenges facing those studying the medium. Those in the field will find it rewarding and those teaching will find it to be a useful teaching tool. Reviewed by Michael Stamm
“Out of the Blue” is a gripping memoir of Jan Wong's struggle with depression and about the end of the love affair with her newspaper. It shines a light on ignorance about clinical depression and on the stigma that the illness brings with it. Her book is also a warning to journalists -- obsession with work is no guarantee that a media organization will stand by you when your head goes into a tailspin.
The Tower of Babble by Richard Stursberg is a mass of contradictions, says Howard Bernstein in this review. So, why read it? A few reasons: It is a rare opportunity to see inside CBC management. It is an amazing look at one of the most controversial, confrontational characters to work in media in Canada. And it actually does provide many examples of what’s wrong with our national broadcaster and the difficulties inherent in trying to keep it running.
Intersections of Media and Communications: Concepts and Critical Framework offers the thought-provoking and intriguing entry points to a field undergoing a most fascinating transformation, but students of communication will not get ready-made recipes and solutions for treating the world of media. They will get something more valuable.
What’s the number one issue facing Canadian media? According to Peter Steven, it’s diversity. Steven, a professor of media studies at Sheridan College in Ontario, has written a guide to Canadian media for Fernwood Publishing’s pocketbook series About Canada. Marc Edge reviews it for J-Source.
In Feeling Canadian, Marusya Bociurkiw tackles the difficult and often frustrating topic of Canadian identity. Bociurkiw’s work yields a wide-ranging book that often strays from its initial objective: to explore Canadian television and national practices from 1995 to 2002.
In Second Wounds, media scholar Carrie Rentschler traces the emergence of victim advocacy in the U.S. from the sixties until the present. Rentschler also explores the relationship the victim’s rights movement and the media, describing how U.S. reporting on crime has been influenced by the movement’s idea of the “secondary victim” as well as theories of post-traumatic stress. In the first of a series of interviews with scholars about journalism research, Researching Journalism page editor Lisa Lynch spoke to Rentschler about her research process and her findings.
Mark Kearney takes a look at The New Journalist -- and discovers a resource that was designed for longevity in the fast-changing journo world.
Book Reviews
edited by DAVID SPENCER
In this section we review books related to journalism in Canada and point you to reviews published elsewhere. If you would like to suggest a book or volunteer to review, please send us an email. David Spencer researches and teaches journalism at Western University.
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