Newsworkers

Book excerpt: What most of us know about media history begins and ends with Citizen Kane. The exploits of media moguls and visionary business leaders - these are the tales that fill media histories in the United States. What's missing is a crucial part of the picture : the rank and file of journalism, and the conditions under which they produced and participated in the business off journalism. Newsworkers supplies this side of the story. Focusing on the period from the 1850s through the 1930s, the contributors show how issues of labor and class have been far more important in the formation of media institutions than previous accounts concede. These essays recover the history of ethnic and cultural diversity - including the contributions of women - that have enriched the process of communication.