cover image News Revolution

News Revolution

Mark D. Alleyne. Palgrave MacMillan, $89.95 (256pp) ISBN 978-0-312-15894-1

Alleyne, an assistant professor of communication at Loyola University of Chicago, attempts to combine theories of information flow and international politics to create a new understanding of how and why some news crosses country borders while other news is stillborn. Sadly, Alleyne's attempt at daring scholarship is so abstract that it confuses more often than it clarifies. The conceptual difficulties begin on page one, when Alleyne posits his self-proclaimed ""bold assertion"" that the news media are ""problematical in international relations in four ways."" He then lists those ways. First, he says, media are used as conduits for international propaganda. Second, media contribute to the unbalanced flow of global news, especially from north to south. Third, media desire protection from censorship. Fourth, news organizations and governments can't ensure the safety of journalists. Nothing is ""bold"" about any of those assertions. They have been stated, in slightly different words, by many commentators. In parts of his seven chapters, Alleyne does provide some useful information. The chapter on the physical danger to journalists is an especially useful mix of theory and fact. But even that chapter breaks little new ground for either journalists who have dealt with sensitive international stories, or for academics who study those daring journalists. Alleyne's original data gathering, consisting of an ""international journalism survey,"" mirrors the problem with the book itself-the survey asks such general questions that the answers turn out to be unfocused or abstract. (Feb.)