Free for All: The Internet’s Transformation of Journalism
Free for All: The Internet’s Transformation of Journalism (Northwestern University Press, 2010) is the first comprehensive history of the development of online journalism. It intertwines the history of the conceptualization and emergence of computers as the third great communication platform after print and broadcasting, and the efforts to use the platform for journalism. Major efforts and incidents including newspapers efforts to go online with AOL and Compuserve, Time Warner’s Pathfinder project, Matt Drudge, the launch of Slate and Salon until the debut of Twitter are included.
The book places the development of online journalism within the context of the impact of new technology on journalism overtime. It also details the clash in cultures between those people pioneering the newly developing online networks of the 1970s and 1980s and the managers of the most important media outlets in the country. The book provides a solid grounding for anybody interested in the future of journalism.
Currents in Communication: Textbook, Reader, Notebook