Words and Things

During most of the evolution of scholarship on news and journalism, accounts almost always began with the word. And they usually ended with it, too. Pick up a book or an article written during the twentieth century about how the news is made, what it consists of, how it circulates in society, and what effects it has on politics and culture. Most likely you will find an account of words, the people who wrote or said them, and the organizations they belonged to and interacted with. Even works of journalism history often tended to center on this “holy trinity.” Virtually...