Tabloid Tales: Global Debates over Media Standards (Critical Media Studies: Institutions, Politics, and Culture) - Hardcover

This book is worth reading and the ideas in it worth exploring. * European Journal Of Communication * The book is an excellent source of theoretical discussion and well-supported research on tabloidization. * Journal of Communication * This book-and its willingness to deal with implications-enables the reader to draw better conclusions than would be possible without it. * Media Ethics * The scope and range of these chapters are impressive. * Media Ethics * Most rewarding. -- James Boylan * Columbia Journalism Review *

The increasing interest in private lives and the falling off of coverage of serious news is often described as 'tabloidization.' The essays in this book are the first serious scholarly studies of what is going on and what its implications are. Reality, it turns out, is much more complex than some of the laments suggest. As the contributors show, this is not just a U.S. problem but is repeated in country after country, and it is not certain that the media anywhere are getting more tabloid. What is more, there is no consensus about whether tabloidization is just 'dumbing down' or whether it is a necessary tactic for the mass media to engage with new audiences who do not have the news habit.