The Great Reporters
Who are the greatest reporters in history? This unique book is the first to try and answer this question. Author David Randall searched nearly two centuries of newspapers and magazines, consulted editors and journalism experts worldwide, and the result is The Great Reporters - 13 in-depth profiles of the best journalists who ever lived.
Each profile tells of the reporter's life and his or her major stories, how they were obtained, and their impact. Packed with anecdotes, and inspiring accounts of difficulties overcome, the book quotes extensively from each reporter’s work. It also includes an essay on the history of reporting, charting the technologies, economics, and attitudes that made it the way it is - from the invention of the telegraph to the Internet. The Great Reporters is not just the story of 13 remarkable people, it is the story of how society's information hunter-gatherers succeed in bringing us all what we need to know.
Each profile tells of the reporter's life and his or her major stories, how they were obtained, and their impact. Packed with anecdotes, and inspiring accounts of difficulties overcome, the book quotes extensively from each reporter’s work. It also includes an essay on the history of reporting, charting the technologies, economics, and attitudes that made it the way it is - from the invention of the telegraph to the Internet. The Great Reporters is not just the story of 13 remarkable people, it is the story of how society's information hunter-gatherers succeed in bringing us all what we need to know.
David Randall was a British journalist and author who was chief news writer of the Independent on Sunday and was news editor of three national newspapers.
'Entertaining, amusing, even inspirational. Above all, what every good reporter aims to deliver, a great read' - Peter Cole, professor of journalism at the University of Sheffield
'American newsrooms need to buy this inspiring book by the carton. David Randall's gripping collection of profiles in inky courage demonstrates that our current malaise amounts to ignorance of the perpetual siege of newsrooms by the powerful and the parsimonious. The Great Reporters is rich with the kind of lore that needs to inform the culture of newspaper journalism' - Dean Miller, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies
Introduction
How the great reporters were chosen
1. The World of the Reporter
How, when and where the job has changed in 150 years
2. Meyer Berger
The reporters’ reporter
3. Nellie Bly
The best undercover reporter in history
4. Edna Buchanan
The best crime reporter there’s ever been
5. James Cameron
The definitive foreign correspondent
6. Richard Harding Davies
One of the best descriptive reporters ever
7. Floyd Gibbons
The supreme example of a reporter in pursuit of an assignment
8. Ann Leslie
The most versatile reporter ever
9. AJ Liebling
The most quotable wit ever by-lined
10. JA MacGahan
Perpetrator of perhaps the greatest piece of reporting ever
11. Hugh McIlvanney
The best writer ever to apply words to newsprint
12. Ernie Pyle
The reporter who never forgot who he was writing for
13. William Howard Russell
The man who invented war corresponding
14. George Seldes
A reporter who got up the noses of the high and mighty
Index
How the great reporters were chosen
1. The World of the Reporter
How, when and where the job has changed in 150 years
2. Meyer Berger
The reporters’ reporter
3. Nellie Bly
The best undercover reporter in history
4. Edna Buchanan
The best crime reporter there’s ever been
5. James Cameron
The definitive foreign correspondent
6. Richard Harding Davies
One of the best descriptive reporters ever
7. Floyd Gibbons
The supreme example of a reporter in pursuit of an assignment
8. Ann Leslie
The most versatile reporter ever
9. AJ Liebling
The most quotable wit ever by-lined
10. JA MacGahan
Perpetrator of perhaps the greatest piece of reporting ever
11. Hugh McIlvanney
The best writer ever to apply words to newsprint
12. Ernie Pyle
The reporter who never forgot who he was writing for
13. William Howard Russell
The man who invented war corresponding
14. George Seldes
A reporter who got up the noses of the high and mighty
Index
Published by Pluto Press in Aug 2005
Paperback ISBN: 9780745322964
eBook ISBN: 9781783716272
eBook ISBN: 9781783716272
135mm x 215mm