Tales From the Great Disruption: Insights and Lessons From Journalism’s Technological Transformation

So....what just happened? The people who fuel our civic conversation-reporters, writers, storytellers-have been asking each other that question a lot lately. So have people who consume their work. Both agree: Waves of technological change have greatly altered the news. How, exactly? Hard to say. This much is known: What adds up to what we are calling The Great Disruption upended certainties, assumptions, and behavior in media institutions, as well as the lives of the men and women who occupied those institutions. The Disruption is changing what journalists do and thus how we think as citizens. What just happened? Media gurus often speak with the confidence of con men. We are not them. Tales From the Great Disruption has no grand theory. Instead, it presents original reporting about what did happen when the waves of change struck and what came in their wake. The first half of the book, "The Gathering Storm," looks back for insight while its second half, "All the Space in the World," explores the new context. These are stories of people and, as such they are about conflict, joy, terror, disappointment, betrayal, loss, and discovery. They illuminate a complex period still in motion. Taken together, they offer lessons on how journalism can better face its Great Disruption.