Introduction: On Finding New Ways of Thinking About Journalism

When a phenomenon is as widespread and as well known as journalism tends to be, it can seem counterintuitive to look for new ways of thinking about it. And yet finding new ways of thinking about journalism is point-center to ensuring journalism’s future. As it faces mounting challenges of a political, technological, economic, cultural, and social nature, those who study journalism have a role to play in developing fuller ways of thinking about it. From the quandaries that arise when the public turns increasingly to comedy, irony, and satire as a viable mode of news delivery to those that ensue when threats to journalists’ physical safety neutralize their ability to work, journalism today must contend with numerous problems that call on us, as scholars, to develop more responsive modes of inquiry. We need to develop inquiry that will not only reflect the changing circumstances in which journalism finds itself but anticipate them as well, because, judging from the present state of affairs, journalism means at once both too much and too little. And therein the real challenge to its future lies.