Ezra's Bookshelf

Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers

by Andrey Mir · 402 pages · ~7.5 hrs

Media & JournalismSociety & Culture

Recommended on

buy on bookshop.org →
Andrey Mir's 'Postjournalism and the Death of Newspapers' offers a provocative analysis of how the economic transformation of media has fundamentally changed what journalism is and does. Mir's central insight is striking: advertising-supported media, whatever its flaws, created journalism that sought to inform mass audiences, while the shift to reader-funded digital media has created journalism that seeks to polarize and engage partisan communities. The old model 'manufactured consent,' as Chomsky famously argued, but the new model manufactures anger, because outrage is what drives subscriptions and clicks. Drawing on media theory and detailed analysis of industry economics, Mir traces how the collapse of advertising revenue forced news organizations to pursue engaged audiences willing to pay, which meant catering to their ideological preferences rather than challenging them. He examines how this transformation has affected coverage of politics, producing not just bias but a fundamental reorientation of journalism's purpose from informing citizens to validating tribal identities. The book challenges both conservative critiques of 'liberal media' and progressive defenses of journalism's integrity, arguing that structural economic forces matter more than individual journalists' intentions. Readers will gain a framework for understanding why media feels different now and what that change means for democratic discourse.

For fans of