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The History Beat: How a Journalist Covers the Past.

This essay reports on a new trend where journalists turn semi-pro historians and analyses the pitfalls of this "journalist semi-pro" approach. Very few journalists possess the skills of a well-trained historian; so they heavily rely on the hard work of others, and distill it for the general reader....

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Published in:Harvard Review no. 31; pp. 170 - 183
Main Author: Horwitz, Tony
Format: Essay
Published: Harvard Review 2006
Subjects:
Historiography
Journalists
History
Historians
Historical analysis
Authorship
21st century (Literary period)
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Summary:This essay reports on a new trend where journalists turn semi-pro historians and analyses the pitfalls of this "journalist semi-pro" approach. Very few journalists possess the skills of a well-trained historian; so they heavily rely on the hard work of others, and distill it for the general reader. Though journalists do acknowledge this, the fact remains that they are fundamentally freeloaders. Even though they make narratives lively, they fail at critical analysis.