How Journalism Uses History (Journalism Studies)

By: Martin Conboy

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Synopsis: How Journalism Uses History examines the various ways in which journalism uses history and historical sources in order to better understand the relationships between journalists, historians and journalism scholars. It highlights the ambiguous overlap between the role of the historian and that of the journalist, and underlines that there no longer seems to be reason to accept that one begins only where the other ends. With Journalism Studies as a developing subject area throughout the world, journalism history is becoming a particularly vivacious field. As such, How Journalism Uses History argues that, if historical study of this kind is to achieve its full potential, there needs to be a fuller and more consistent engagement with other academics studying the past: political, social and cultural historians in particular, but also scholars working in politics, sociology, literature and linguistics. Contributors in this book discuss the core themes which inform history’s relationship with journalism from a wide range of geographical and methodological perspectives. They aim to create more ambitious conversations about using journalism both as a source for understanding the past, and for clarifying ideas about its role as constituent of the public sphere in using discourse and tradition to connect contemporary audiences with history. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Practice.