Home » Daily News, Eternal Stories: The Mythological Role of Journalism
Print
Create Flyer
Daily News, Eternal Stories
The Mythological Role of Journalism
The Mythological Role of Journalism
Jack Lule
Winner of the MEA's 2002 Lewis Mumford Award for Outstanding Scholarship in the Ecology of Technics
"Jack Lule has been known for years as a skilled and subtle interpreter of news narratives. In Daily News, Eternal Stories, Lule convincingly argues that storytelling, not information dissemination, is the core activity of journalism. He finds mythic themes in every nook and cranny of the news--in stories about everything from terrorism and disaster to the exploits of Mark McGwire, Mother Teresa, and Huey Newton. Daily News, Eternal Stories is a wonderful book--smart, humane, witty, and
passionate."
-John Pauly, Saint Louis University
"This splendid book enters the debates over the crisis in news with a provocative thesis that no one can ignore. To resolve our confusion over the social role of newsmakers, the author argues for understanding the news as myth. In dramatic fashion, The New York Times becomes state scribe, the latest in a long line of privileged storytellers. Communications scholarship for years has played with the intriguing relation of mythmaking to news. Here that idea finally comes into its own--with intelligence, mastery of the literature, and a graceful style. This is a landmark book in the sociology of news."
-Clifford G. Christians, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
"A century ago, poets and novelists began to experiment with the relation between mythic archetypes and the clichés and stereotypes of everyday existence. Jack Lule approaches these matters from the front pages of the daily press, rather than from the pages of literature. He demonstrates basic mythic patterns in news and shows how news media are busily engaged in reviving and replaying our oldest myths. This book offers a vital perspective for understanding the structure of news in a world bathed in information."
-Eric McLuhan, PhD
-John Pauly, Saint Louis University
"This splendid book enters the debates over the crisis in news with a provocative thesis that no one can ignore. To resolve our confusion over the social role of newsmakers, the author argues for understanding the news as myth. In dramatic fashion, The New York Times becomes state scribe, the latest in a long line of privileged storytellers. Communications scholarship for years has played with the intriguing relation of mythmaking to news. Here that idea finally comes into its own--with intelligence, mastery of the literature, and a graceful style. This is a landmark book in the sociology of news."
-Clifford G. Christians, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
"A century ago, poets and novelists began to experiment with the relation between mythic archetypes and the clichés and stereotypes of everyday existence. Jack Lule approaches these matters from the front pages of the daily press, rather than from the pages of literature. He demonstrates basic mythic patterns in news and shows how news media are busily engaged in reviving and replaying our oldest myths. This book offers a vital perspective for understanding the structure of news in a world bathed in information."
-Eric McLuhan, PhD
