Becoming the News

Becoming the News studies how ordinary people make sense of their experience as media subjects. Ruth Palmer charts the arc of the experience of “making” the news, from the events that bring an ordinary person to journalists’ attention through their interactions with reporters and reactions to the news coverage and its aftermath.

Ruth Palmer is an assistant professor of communications at IE University in Madrid and Segovia. Her work has been published in Journalism, Journalism Studies, and Literary Journalism Studies. She was also a writer and editor for the Knight Case Studies Initiative at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

C.W. Anderson, University of Leeds:
From Kurt and Gladys Lang to Todd Gitlin, media scholars have probed the disjuncture between experiencing a media event and the journalistic coverage of it. Now, in our era of fake news and partisan distrust, Ruth Palmer analyzes how ordinary people feel when they become the subjects of news stories. This timely and fascinating book marks a major step forward for the field of communication research.

David Pritchard, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee:
Becoming the News examines the seemingly mundane experience of having been mentioned in the news—an important social phenomenon that scholars have ignored and one that changes how huge numbers of Americans think not only about the news media but also about themselves. Palmer weaves a compelling tapestry of classic social theory, modern scholarship, and outstanding interviews. Built on thoughtful and sensitive research and brimming with insight, Becoming the News is a breakthrough contribution to the fields of sociology and journalism studies.

Rasmus Nielsen, Director of Research, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford:
What is it like for ordinary people to be in the news? This is a critically important question for understanding the practice of journalism and how it is perceived by the public. Becoming the News tackles it in a most interesting, engaging, and revelatory manner, showing how ordinary news subjects frequently experience journalists as an overwhelming and unaccountable power, and not as someone on their side. Anyone interested in understanding the crisis of trust facing journalism today should read this book to hear the public’s side of the story.