Informing the News: The Need for Knowledge-Based Journalism (Vintage)
In this insightful and well-sourced polemic, Patterson details the persistent failings of the news media. Genuinely concerned with the civic ramifications of an uninformed populace, he documents what he calls the drastic factual deficit in the U.S. with myriad examples showing how segments of the population hold severe misconceptions on crucial issues. Patterson reveals the fragmented nature of our media, given current technology; details how reporters inflate coverage and criticism of political figures to attract an audience; calls out the subservience of reporters to the officials whom they rely on for quotes; and critiques the “he said, she said” system of reporting, noting that it creates false equivalencies and is easily manipulated by public-relations teams. Patterson expresses a lack of faith in the current rise of “crowd-sourced” reporting to cure these ailments and instead prescribes stronger, “knowledge-based journalism,” calling for specialized coverage of public affairs that is authoritative, well researched, and as close to “journalistic truth” as it can be. Any would-be journalist or individual fascinated with the political economy of media will learn much from Patterson’s comprehensive assessment of the news world today. --Steve Uhrich