Life Informatic

Dominic Boyer is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Rice University. He is the author of Understanding Media: A Popular Philosophy and Spirit and System: Media, Intellectuals and the Dialectic in Modern German Culture.

• PrologueIntroduction: News Journalism Today1. The Craft of Slotting: Screenwork, Attentional Practices, and News Value at an International News Agency2. Click and Spin: Time, Feedback, and Expertise at an Online News Portal3. Countdown: Professionalism, Publicity, and Po liti cal Culture in 24/7 News Radio4. The News Informatic: Five Refl ections on Journalism in the Era of Digital LiberalismEpilogue: Informatic Unconscious: On the Evolution of Digital Reason in AnthropologyNotesBibliography

"Boyer analyzes the nuances of screen-oriented news-work in truly exemplary fashion; indeedmany journalism studies scholars and budding newsroom ethnographers could learn a great deal from this practicing anthropologist about how to so newsroom fieldwork well... we must take the arguments of The Life Informatic seriously. It certainly stands as a remarkably important piece of ethnographic and anthropological scholarship." —C.W. AndersonCollege of Staten Island (CUNY)(Anthropological Quarterly) Dominic Boyer's thoughtful exploration of news production in Germany is a standout among recent newsroom studies based on ethnography, observation, or participant observation....Boyer writes that he envisioned The Life Informatic as 'short, accessible, and above all teachable,' and it is all those things. Any of the ethnographic chapters could be used in a graduate or advanced undergraduate course without the instructor feeling that he or she needed to assign the entire book.- Susan Keith (Journalism) In his intriguing new study The Life Informatic: Newsmaking in the Digital Era, anthropologist Dominic Boyer.. brings a rich ethnographic focus on daily labor practices rather than on industry—or organization—scale relationships....[this] deep ethnographic study reveals in sharp detail one aspect of the 'life informatic' when it comes to the competitive environment of global, digital, and often entertainment-focused journalism.- Greg Downey (Technology and Culture) In The Life Informatic, Dominic Boyer examines the changing news industry by observing journalists at work, in the hope that mapping the flow of information between and within newsrooms will help us understand how news is made in today's post-broadcast era. Boyer is ultimately successful in presenting a contemporary account of the converged newsroom and adding to a body of evidence-based thought about how to build a sustainable industry in the future.- Scott Bridges (Inside Story) This book offers much that will interest advanced students of journalism and anthropology.(Choice)