Jim Willis

Health and safety risk issues such as AIDS, hazardous waste disposal, airline disasters, and health care policy frequently dominate the news and require a new level of sensitivity and expertise on the part of journalists. This volume focuses on a study of the trends in risk reporting and offers guidelines on how to report the dangers of these risks more accurately. It also examines the ethical implications of reporting risks to the public. This work will be of interest to those studying communication, specifically in the areas of ethics in journalism and public health and medical reporting.

This text examines the startling and rapidly changing developments in media technology, especially as they affect journalism and the news media. We now stand at the threshold of a revolution in the news and entertainment media, and those media as we know them today may soon cease to exist. Whereas it had always been a simple matter to distinguish between newspapers, broadcast television, cable television, motion pictures, telephones, and computers, those distinctions are quickly blurring as a new universal media looms on the horizon. Here Jim Willis examines the new multimedia--and the concept of turbonews--and how journalism, the news media, and our lifestyles will be changed forever.

This book looks at the news media's portrayal of reality and seeks answers as to why this portrayal often falls short of reality itself. Jim Willis examines the factors that contribute to the journalist's often faulty perception of reality, factors that are beyond the immediate control of the reporter: errant sources, competitive influences, the embedding process of storytelling, marketing's influence on the news, and the structure of news stories. The book stresses that the reporting process is more difficult than most critics and reporters realize, and points out that the best reporters are those who will take time to recognize challenges and work to overcome them. Ideal as a supplementary text for advanced courses in reporting, The Shadow World focuses on the complexities of good reporting. It studies the challenges that face today's journalist and provides practical guidance for the novice reporter. Studying actual reporting cases, Willis discusses the difference between seeking accuracy and seeking truth in journalism. He examines state-of-the-art methods of good reporting and stresses the need for specializing, remembering the larger truth, treating rumors as rumors, and following appropriate role models. A useful guide discussing the full range of philosophical, theoretical, and practical considerations influencing the reporter, The Shadow World will be a valuable resource for the student of journalism.

A necessity for the professional journalist's library, Journalism: State of the Art will prove a valuable resource for the student journalist as well. This book summarizes some 200 media studies many from the most prestigious journal in the trade, Journalism Quarterly. In a paraphrased-synthesis format, and using informal terms, the author arranges some of the most interesting studies of the 1980s into eight subject headings including: Ethics Law, and the Journalist; Advertising in the 1980s; Polling and Precision Journalism; and Predictors of Readership and Viewship. For many years there has been a gap between media researchers and the practicing journalist. Published research about journalism as a discipline may receive attention in the classroom but seldom gets in the newsroom. Viewing the gap between the researcher and practitioner, Willis offers comments from both sides. He surveys nearly 150 news executives on media research and gives an insightful look at what factors cause readers or viewers to pay attention to the news media. From trends in the industry to types of audiences, Journalism: State of the Art uses practical research studies presented in an accessible style. Offering the most current data available on media research, this book will prove a great instructional as well as reference tool. It is a must for college journalists, working press, and media marketers.

Willis' almost total textbook analysis of today's newspaper makes Surviving in the Newspaper Business precisely what it claims to be: `A how-to guide to newspaper management in the 1980s and beyond . . . a set of unified principles for successful management.' It explains the supervision and organization of each department and stresses the importance of keeping the paper responsive to the needs of its readers, advertisers and, somewhat surprisingly, even its employees. Willis talks about advertising, circulation and marketing strategies and how to deal with competition from TV, the suburban weeklies and labor unions. He looks at `the editor as a people manager,' something that more than one tradition-bound editor has been unable to do for himself. The book has sample budgets and organizational charts and even a discussion of the relative merits of adult vs. youth carriers. Newspaper Research Journal Professor Jim Willis' book is a nicely condensed overview of the newspaper as a business. Though it is aimed at journalism students enrolled in newspaper management classes, it is also worthwhile reading for the curious reporter or copy editor who knows little about how newspapers make and spend money. . . . The book is sprinkled with good, common sense about balancing newspapers as a business against newspapering as good journalism. Professor Willis makes a gallant attempt to make sure students understand that though the newspaper must make a profit to survive, it will never truly excel unless it produces a good news-editorial product. ASNE BulletinSurviving in the Newspaper Business is a how-to-do-it guide to newspaper management for the 1980s and beyond. It presents a set of unified principles for successful management and exposes the student to the primary mission of the newspaper: to deliver a quality product to the depth and breadth of the marketplace. Stressing the importance of the total newspaper concept, Willis portrays the successful newspaper as integrated internally among departments and externally with its readership and advertisers. In addition, he analyzes the newspaper's industrial environment, discusses management survival strategies, considers business and finance plans, and assesses organizational behavior in the newsroom. Included are a series of hands-on case studies offering further insights into topics discussed.