Salon has a free, well-written review of Hard News: The Scandals at The New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media. It touches on a number of important issues about how “every morning’s edition of the Times defines what the terms of discourse will be on that day for the political, intellectual and media elites of the United States.” (Hat tip: Jesse Berrett).
In this month’s Columbia Journalism Review, there is a thoughtful essay called Let’s Blame the Readers which articulates how the changing notion of citizenship has affected newspaper readership. “The traditional and primary collective goal of public schools building literate citizens able to engage in democratic practices has been replaced by the goal of social efficiency, that is, preparing students for a competitive labor market anchored in a swiftly changing economy.” The essay cities a recent study of citizen education which described three different varieties of citizenship: the “personally responsible citizen,” the “participatory citizen,” and the “justice-oriented citizen. The first contributes food to a food drive, the second helps organize a food drive, while the third explores why people are hungry and acts to solve root causes.” (Hat tip: Tim Porter.)