A fully revised and updated edition of the bible of the newspaper industry

Anna McKane provides a step-by-step guide to constructing a good news story, with good and bad examples and a detailed analysis of style, language and grammar.

Writing and Reporting News in the 21st Century: The Speed at Which We Travel introduces students to the fast-paced and ever-changing landscape of modern media. The text highlights the importance of embracing technology and social media while abiding by the ethical considerations that aspiring journalists must follow. The first section of the book presents students with guiding principles for practicing accurate and fair journalism, as well as the various codes of ethics used across journalistic mediums, namely print, digital, and broadcast. The second section provides an overview of the basics for writing news for online, print, radio, and TV outlets. It also posits valuable advice that will help new journalists conduct an effective interview, pose meaningful questions, and capture what the source has to say accurately. The final section demonstrates the myriad ways the study of journalism can lead to successful careers in marketing, public relations, full-time reporting, editing, or producing. Writing and Reporting News in the 21st Century is ideal for introductory courses in journalism. It is also a valuable supplemental text for foundational courses in marketing, public relations, and technical writing. Yumi Wilson earned her B.A. in journalism from the University of Southern California and M.F.A. in creative non-fiction from the University of San Francisco. She is an associate professor of journalism at the San Francisco State University. Grace M. Provenzano earned her B.S. in social sciences at Michigan State University and M.M.C. in mass communication from Arizona State University. She is a lecturer at Iowa State University's Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication. Gina Baleria earned her B.A. in English, with emphases in film and history, from the University of California, Los Angeles; M.A. in communication: media studies from Stanford University, and Ed.D. in educational leadership from San Francisco State University. She is a lecturer at San Francisco State University.

How to transform a thesis into a publishable work that can engage audiences beyond the academic committee. When a dissertation crosses my desk, I usually want to grab it by its metaphorical lapels and give it a good shake. “You know something!” I would say if it could hear me. “Now tell it to us in language we can understand!” Since its publication in 2005, From Dissertation to Book has helped thousands of young academic authors get their books beyond the thesis committee and into the hands of interested publishers and general readers. Now revised and updated to reflect the evolution of scholarly publishing, this edition includes a new chapter arguing that the future of academic writing is in the hands of young scholars who must create work that meets the broader expectations of readers rather than the narrow requirements of academic committees. At the heart of From Dissertation to Book is the idea that revising the dissertation is fundamentally a process of shifting its focus from the concerns of a narrow audience—a committee or advisors—to those of a broader scholarly audience that wants writing to be both informative and engaging. William Germano offers clear guidance on how to do this, with advice on such topics as rethinking the table of contents, taming runaway footnotes, shaping chapter length, and confronting the limitations of jargon, alongside helpful timetables for light or heavy revision. Germano draws on his years of experience in both academia and publishing to show writers how to turn a dissertation into a book that an audience will actually enjoy, whether reading on a page or a screen. He also acknowledges that not all dissertations can or even should become books and explores other, often overlooked, options, such as turning them into journal articles or chapters in an edited work. With clear directions, engaging examples, and an eye for the idiosyncrasies of academic writing, he reveals to recent PhDs the secrets of careful and thoughtful revision—a skill that will be truly invaluable as they add “author” to their curriculum vitae.

Requirements for professional media editing have undergone enormous technological change. Editors still edit copy. But today they do much more. Mass media editors must demonstrate skills from computerized pagination to social media monitoring, from image manipulation to Search Engine Optimization. The need for editing skills is reaching far beyond traditional journalism and into all areas of mass media, from newspapers to strategic communication. Public relations practitioners are expected to edit. Even advertising creative professionals must edit. And journalists taking on new roles as social media editors need to understand editing at the speed of digital media. This textbook aims to prepare university-level students for these expanded editing roles in an age of convergence. Thirteen authors representing many years of collective media experience examine both traditional editing roles and new editing needs. While many mass media students will not become professional editors, this textbook assumes nearly all will need competent editing knowledge to produce products of professional quality. Editing, the authors believe, remains a bedrock skill for all students who hope to be successful in the mass media. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

The work of «editing» is by and large something that happens behind the scenes, noticed only when it is done badly, or not done at all. There is not much information about what editors do. The result is that editing is not often talked about in its own right - not even by the people who do it. This collection of interviews attempts to fill some of the gaps. The author, a former editor herself, interviews practitioners at the top of their game - from newspapers, magazines, broadcast news, book publishing, scholarly editing, academic publishing and digital curation. The interviewees think out loud about creativity and human judgment; what they have in common and what makes them different; how editing skills and culture can be shared; why editing continues to fascinate; and why any of this might matter.