cover image The American Journalist: A Portrait of U.S. News People and Their Work

The American Journalist: A Portrait of U.S. News People and Their Work

David H. Weaver. Indiana University Press, $0 (216pp) ISBN 978-0-253-30602-9

This pedestrian volume presents the results of interviews with 1001 journalists currently at work in both print and electronic media, and offers conclusions that are not entirely unexpected. The majority of people in the field are white, male and Protestant, but the number of women and minority-group members is increasing. Many are college graduates who did not attend schools of journalism, although the authorsjournalism professors at Indiana Universitypoint out that almost half did study journalism. The average age of practitioners is lower than in most fields, for many leave because of low salaries. Ironically, Watergate notwithstanding, most of the journalists interviewed for this study see themselves less as muckrakers or probers than as interpreter-analysts. The book should prove enlightening to editors and publishers. Illustrations not seen by PW. (April)