Liked this book when I skimmed it shortly after a rave review in NYTimes. Then re-read it recently in preparation for a class I was teaching. What was it I so didn't like? The tone: arrogant or self-enclosed? The vision: self-referential or too zealous. The writing itself: convoluted not clear. So, read it once for pleasure and do not pick it up again.

Rosen's goals are to define, explain, and defend the idea of "public journalism," but he realizes only the last of these. Even here, since the idea of public journalism remains fuzzy, his defense cannot be fully successful. The problem of definition and explanation can be seen in chapter 3--in the case studies of what Rosen (NYU) calls public journalism. These markedly different examples are really nothing more than good journalistic practices. And then in chapter 8 Rosen decries what practitioners themselves are calling public journalism. The chapter with the stated goal of presenting critical responses to the experiments is in fact largely Rosen's response to this criticism. But even though readers will not come away with any clear idea of what public journalism really is, this volume is useful in that it provides a discussion of some of the issues by an advocate who presents himself as a major shaper of the concept. The work includes adequate documentation and a combined name and subject index. For collections serving graduate students, researchers, faculty, and communication professionals.

Many professors probably dream of launching intellectual movements that change things for the better. Jay Rosen of New York University, author of "What Are Journalists For?" has actually done it. His superb, serious and constructive book tells the story of public journalism, a movement aimed at questioning the conventional wisdom of journalists and at re-centering their efforts. Public journalism encouraged journalists to be "for" richer democratic discourse, for example, and to reflect the real concerns of citizens in their stories, rather than each election year's set of "issues" as devised by politicians. Controversial from the start, the movement has had real impact: Sneered at by haughty power-journalists in some major metropolitan media, public journalism was embraced in more open-minded places like Kansas, Florida and North Carolina, and the results have been both interesting and encouraging. In its diagnosis of what's wrong with today's media and its search for constructive alternatives, Rosen's book is fascinating. (With James Fallows' earlier "Breaking the News," this highly readable book is essential information for citizens who care about the way the media work.) And in its careful, fair, thoughtful and modest account of the public-journalism movement, author Rosen actually creates a model of the kind of journalism he advocates--- and teaches.

within the heart of darkness trilogy this second edition is not as good as the second but is set in one of the most favored spots in the deadlands, the shattered coast. If you are looking for a small quest for california or the contuation of the heart of darkness trilogy you must buy this.

I thought this book was very out of date! I would not recomend this book to people that want to travel to Georgia.

I read through this book with delight. Finally, I thought, the West can learn the true origin, history and present about Georgia. I am Georgian. I have been living in the US for over six years.