Book argues that journalists need deeper knowledge to cover public policy, resist manipulation

In Informing the News: The Need for Knowledge-Based Journalism, Tom Patterson of Harvard University "argues that journalists need to deepen their knowledge base in order to deal with the increased complexity of public-policy issues and the heightened efforts of others to manipulate news coverage," writes Alex Jones, director of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

"Tom’s book builds on the journalism discussions and studies we have conducted . . . during the past decade," Jones writes. "I strongly believe that the book is one of the most important works on journalism of recent decades, one that has a place in nearly every journalism or mass communication classroom. Journalism is in need of genuinely new thinking, and Informing the News is groundbreaking."

In an excerpt from the book, published on Salon, Patterson (@tompharvard) says journalism is too often driven by conflict, which it can drive itself, sometimes by reporting false claims without question. "By airing deceptive claims and pairing them with opposing claims, the journalist leaves open the question of where the truth lies," Patterson writes, citing several examples, including global warming and climate change, where a scientific consensus has been obscured. (Read more)

Additional information, including how to obtain an examination copy of the book, can be found here.