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Abstract: At the end of the interwar period--during which the influence of the novel and journalism on each other grew more pronounced --Sartre suggests in Le sursis a representation of [...]

This essay traces historical evidence of the critical ambivalence toward American literary journalism not only by belle lettres and the literature academy, but also by the journalism community and the journalism and mass communications academy. Paradoxically, such ambivalence stems from similar attempts by both scholars of literature and journalism to base their studies on critical assumptions that could only prove exclusionary of the serious consideration of American literary journalism as an identifiable discourse. This examination is necessary if one is to understand why a narrative form that has proved as durable as it has since at least the latter part of the nineteenth century has received relatively little acknowledgment by the academy until recently. By engaging in such an examination, the form can be further defined by the historical presence it was not permitted to have.

The three models to study the use of rituals in journalism are the occupational model, the organizational model and the institutional model. The study of the strategic ritual at the individual level leads to the study of routinization at the organizational level, and to the impact of these rituals and routines at the institutional level. Ritual should be employed as a heuristic device and should be seen both as a cultural force and as a tool for studying journalism. The study of the enaction of cultural rituals by the media should be followed by a study of rituals within news organizations.

Powerful reporting by Christiane Amanpour and others focused the world's attention on Serb atrocities in Bosnia. But did these hournalists go too far when tehy became both reporters and advocates? […]

The public holds journalists in low regard despite their efforts to adhere to objective reporting. One reason for this is a tendency to blame the messenger for delivering bad news. Another problem is related to the fact that the public's expectations of objectivity often turn out to be different from their desires. Journalists need to rise to the challenge of making important news stories interesting so that they attract as much attention as those stories based on entertainment or scandal.

Two Mexican women, Cristina Pacheco and Guadalupe Loaeza, use a form of literary journalism in describing the lives of women in Mexico City, Mexico. Abandoning the traditional objectivity of male dominated journalism, these two authors include themselves in their stories, acting as advocates and witnesses. Pacheco's writing examines the lives of women from the lower classes, displaying their poverty and oppression. Loaeza's satiric and familiar style is seen in her stories about the upper and middle classes.

The essay examines Karl Marx's work as a newspaper journalist and critic, focusing on the emergence of his historical and political sensibilities.

As a decade closes during which nearly everyone seemed to complain about the nightly news and in which media coverage of events like the Gulf War or the O. J. [...]

When Reid Ashe was growing up outside Charlotte, North Carolina, he didn't have a paper route or start his own neighborhood newspaper. Instead, he built and dismantled radios, learned telegraph [...]

The caption described a woman living in New York's suburbs as 'a former native of Kosovo,' but unless she was literally born again, that can't be. A 'native' of someplace [...]

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is in desperate need of someone who can write about the St. Louis radio market without screwing up every article with factual errors. For reasons that [...]

In this issue, reviews of books will mingle with reflections from authors, journalists and other observers about ways in which members of the media report on events of our time. [...]

THE DAY AFTER the United States Senate voted not to remove President Bill Clinton from office, ratings for the all-news cable network MSNBC fell by half. The audience for Rupert [...]

Journalist and academician Chuck Stone's repudiation of public (or civic) journalism in this issue of SJR is a major blow to the 1990s movement. Stone's stature lent credibility to public [...]

Russ Baker's otherwise admirable review of the press treatment of 'The Lomborg File' (CJR, March/April) leaves everything to be desired in his explanation of why Lomborg fared so well: impressiveness [...]

Bruce Porter's review of Into the Buzzsaw (CJR, March/ April) presents a disturbing pattern of factual inaccuracies, bordering on distortion. I am writing to clarify and correct the record. First [...]