Media Debates: Great Issues for the Digital Age (with InfoTrac?) by Everette E. Dennis, John C. Merrill

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Synopsis

Dennis (communication and media industries, Fordham U. Graduate School of Business) and Merrill (emeritus, journalism, U. of Missouri) debate each other on a range of questions regarding the relationship of the media to politics, society, and democracy. For each chapter, they provide a neutral summation of prevailing views on the topic at hand and then present contrasting arguments supporting opposite positions. Twenty chapters deal consider such issues as concentration of media ownership, the media's responsibility to serve the public interest, political bias in the media, media treatment of war and terrorism, the impact of advertising as a social force, and the need for diversity. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Booknews

In a series of 19 brief exchanges, Dennis (communication and media instruction, Fordhams Graduate School of Business) and Merrill (journalism, University of Missouri, emeritus) debate key issues concerning the media. These include topics like the freedom of the press, the relationship between the media and the government, the concentration of ownership, the right to know, bias, election coverage, public opinion, the Internet, journalistic objectivity, ethics, advertising, public relations, and professionalism. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Biography

Everette E. Dennis is the Felix E. Larkin Professor of Communication and Media Instructor at Fordham¿s Graduate School of Business in New York City. He was founding director of the respected Media Studies Center at Columbia University and founding president of the American Academy in Berlin. He has been a dean at the University of Oregon and taught at the Universities of Minnesota, Kansas State and Northwestern. Dr. Dennis recently completed a major study of the digital strategies of the top 25 media companies¿the same year he won the coveted Eleanor Blum Award for service to research from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

John C. Merrill is professor emeritus from the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. Dr. Merrill spent most of his academic career at Missouri, but also served as director and professor of the Manship School of Journalism at Louisiana State University and held a chair at the University of Maryland. He has also taught at a number of schools overseas, including as a visiting professor at the American University, Cairo, in 2004.