Through a critical, transdisciplinary approach, Journalism and Crime offers a chronological interrogation of crime journalism from its first origins in 16th century print, to a transatlantic phenomenon in the 19th century and through to the complex networked digital spheres of the current day.
This is the first book to historicise the development of journalism and crime together in relation to the people on both sides of the exchange. Taking a 470-year historical sweep, it tracks the cultural, political and social significance of crime journalism and its place as the longest sustained genre of media. It emphasises how crime journalism both reflects and drives shifts in media ownership, the priorities of profit, use of new technologies and legal and political governance.
Written in an accessible style, this is essential reading for courses that consider the development and nature of journalism as well as supplementary reading for broader courses within journalism, communication, media studies, criminology, sociology and history.
1 Introduction. 2. Early modern origins of crime news and journalism. 3. The 18th century carnivalesque crime conversation. 4. Rhetorical wars: Old guards, new radicals and the (de)criminalisation of the "lower orders". 5. From Newgate to New Journalism, via New York: Crime journalism as transatlantic phenomenon. 6. Tabloidism triumphant! 7. Neoliberal tabloidism and hypercriminality. 8. Conclusion: what’s to be done?
Biography
Bethany Usher is Director of Education for postgraduate studies at the School of Arts and Culture at Newcastle University and a senior lecturer in journalism theory and practice. Prior to becoming an academic, Usher was a journalist, working as a staff correspondent for several national and regional newspapers, including as a crime correspondent.
Although crime reporting is one of the foundational discourses of journalism, it has received less critical attention than many other areas of news. And much of what it has received has focused on its most unsavoury characteristics. Bethany Usher argues convincingly that if we are to understand the nature of crime journalism – and indeed attempt to improve it – we need to understand the relationship between journalism and crime from their origins to the present day. To this end she has produced a ground-breaking work which takes a critical transdisciplinary approach to the subject. Combining theoretical frameworks from a wide range of disciplines, the result is a book which goes well beyond journalism studies and into history, sociology and political analysis. It also succeeds admirably in its aim of being a call to arms.
Professor Julian Petley, editor of the Journal of British Cinema and Television and editorial board member of British Journalism Review.
This book was a joy to read! Written in a scholarly, yet accessible, manner it engages with some of the key debates in journalism today but does so by taking a systematic and thoroughly researched historical perspective. I fully endorse the author's argument that in order to understand how contemporary crime journalism might work better in the public interest, there are many key lessons to be taken from the past.
Professor Jamie Medhurst, editor of Media History.
