is a series of articles written for the New Yorker about the news media, more particularly print media, It focuses on the business aspects of print news, company reorganizations, managers and what they did do well and poorly, the culture of various newspapers, the growing relationship between newspapers and other forms of media.
It is interesting but not compelling reading, Auletta, whose previous books include Greed and Glory on Wall Street and World War,, is concerned about how the publishing industry affects the practice of journalism, in theory not beholden to profits and losses, Most critics agree that Backstory is a provocative if uneven collection that shows a serious understanding of the trade, Auletta's best pieces examine controversial figures such as Raines and Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, His less successful ones delve into the grisly and possibly soporific details of the business and meander off into unrelated topics, One interesting but irrelevant article features a reporter who abandoned journalism for religion, Still, this is Journalismstraight from the horse's mouth, with a small very small silver lining: if you become a journalist, you might also become famous, This is an excerpt from a review published in sitelinkBookmarks magazine, It is said that journalism is a vital public service as well as a business, but more and more it is also said that big media consolidation noisy, instant opinions on cable and the Internet and political "bias" are making a mockery of such highminded ideals.
In Backstory, Ken Auletta explores why one of America's most important industries is also among its most troubled, He travels from the proud New York Times, the last outpost of oldschool family ownership, whose own personnel problems make headline news, into the depths of New York City's brutal tabloid wars and out across the country to journalism's new wave, chains like the Chicago Tribune's, where "synergy" is ever more a mantra.
He probes the moral ambiguity of "media personalities"journalists who become celebrities themselves, padding their incomes by schmoozing with Imus and rounding the lucrative corporate lecture circuit, He reckons with the legacy of journalism's past and the different prospects for its future, from fallen of new media such as Inside, com to the rising star of cable news, Roger Ailes's Fox News, The product of more than ten years covering the news media for The New Yorker, Backstory is Journalismby the course's master teacher, Enormous appreciation for journalists and total absorption in the history of newsmaking and publishing, Stops short of the digital era but the major forces behind the news make a great read, Auletta goes on to write about Google, so start with Backstory and then move along to his other works, Ken Auletta has written
Annals of Communications columns and profiles for The New Yorker magazine since, He is the author of eleven books, including five national bestsellers: sitelink Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way sitelink Greed And Glory On Wall Street: The Fall of The House of Lehman sitelink The Highwaymen: Warriors of the Information Super Highway sitelink World War.
: Microsoft and Its Enemies and sitelink Googled, The End of the World As We Know It, which was published in November of, Auletta has won numerous journalism honors, He has been chosen a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library, and one of theth Centurys topbusiness journalists by a distinguished national panel of peers.
For two decades Auletta has been a national jud Ken Auletta has written Annals of Communications columns and profiles for The New Yorker magazine since, He is the author of eleven books, including five national bestsellers: sitelink Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way sitelink Greed And Glory On Wall Street: The Fall of The House of Lehman sitelink The Highwaymen: Warriors of the Information Super Highway sitelink World War.
: Microsoft and Its Enemies and sitelink Googled, The End of the World As We Know It, which was published in November of, Auletta has won numerous journalism honors, He has been chosen a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library, and one of theth Century's topbusiness journalists by a distinguished national panel of peers.
For two decades Auletta has been a national judge of the Livingston Awards for journalists under thirty five, He has been a Trustee and member of the Executive Committee of the Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival, He was a member of the Columbia Journalism School Task Force assembled by incoming college President Lee Bollinger to help reshape the curriculum, He has served as a Pulitzer Prize juror and a Trustee of the Nightingale Bamford School, He was twice a Trustee of PEN, the international writers organization, He is a member of the New York Public Library's Emergency Committee for the Research Libraries, of the Author's Guild, PEN, and of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Auletta grew up on Coney Island in Brooklyn, where he attended public schools, He graduated with a B, S. from the State University College at Oswego, N, Y. , and received an M. A. in political science from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, sitelink.