Draws on media's past strengths to define a more responsive role for journalism's future. This work covers many current trends: minority voices, providing interactive community forums, reconciling informational and entertainment functions, understanding bias and creating public opinion.

Most great transformations are not apparent as we live through them. Only in hindsight do individual moments acquire layers of meaning that give them great significance. Looking back is not something that comes naturally to journalists, immersed as they are in breaking events and relentless deadlines. But there is still good reason for journalists, scholars, and people who care about journalism to think about the critical episodes in its recent evolution. In "Defining Moments in Journalism, "such authors vividly describe episodes of this kind.

Some of the chapters and contributors include: "The Lessons of Little Rock" by Harry S. Ashmore; "Vietnam and War Reporting" by Peter Arnett; "Photo-journalists--Visionaries Who Have Changed Our Vision" by Jane M. Rosett; "The Weight of Watergate" by Ellen Hume; "Women Sportswriters--Business as Usual" by Mary Schmitt; "The Connie Chung Phenomenon" by Somini Sengupta; and "Covering Politics--Is There a Female Difference?" by Judy Woodruff.

The years since the Great Depression and World War II have seen vast changes in America and also in its journalism. Journalists' relationship to power and authority is more complex; the press corps has become more diverse; the technology of news reporting is almost unrecognizably different from that of fifty years ago; and economic reorganization of the media has bundled news and entertainment organizations into conglomerates of extraordinary size. "Defining Moments in Journalism "is a fascinating read for communications scholars and professionals, historians, and political scientists.

How do gender relations affect the practice of journalism? Despite the star status accorded to some women reporters, and the dramatic increase in the number of women working in journalism, why do men continue to occupy most senior management positions? And why do female readers, viewers and listeners remain as elusive as ever?
News, Gender and Power addresses the pressing questions of how gender shapes the forms, practice, institutions and audiences of journalism. The contributors, who include John Hartley, Pat Holland, Jenny Kitzinger and Myra Macdonald, draw on feminist theory and gender-sensitive critiques to explore media issues such as:
* ownership and control
* employment and occupation status
* the representation of women in the media
* the sexualization of news and audience research.
Within this framework the contributors explore media coverage of:
* the trial of O. J. Simpson
* British beef and the BSE scandal
* the horrific crimes of Fred and Rosemary West
* child sexual abuse and false memory syndrome
* the portrayal of women in TV documentaries such as Modern Times and Cutting Edge.

Between 1988 and 1992 a technologically sophisticated entrepreneurial leadership at the Christian Science Monitor led a costly campaign to diversify beyond the failing newspaper into radio, the Internet, multimedia publishing, and the highest ticket item of all -- a CNN-style, 24-hour news and public affairs cable TV channel. In 1992, the entire enterprise came crashing down. Sue Bridge tells the whole story here, setting it in the historical context of Monitor journalism, beginning with the paper's founding in 1908, through the rise of television in the fifties and sixties, and ending with the effective loss of the Monitor as a significant voice in American journalism, at a time when thoughtful and balanced sources of information are increasingly lost in the mass communications marketplace

Making the Local News is a comprehensive assessment of contemporary local news production which traces the shifting position of local newspapers within local, national and multi-national media. Besides analysing the rapid technological advances of recent years, this unique textbook investigates the distinctive editorial formats of local daily and weekly papers, free papers and alternative press, local press regulation, the coverage of political and business news, and the contribution of national and local government agencies to the construction of local news agendas.

How are events turned into news pictures that define them for the audience? How do events become commodified into pictures that both capture them and reiterate the values of the agencies that sell them? This book looks at every stage of the production of news photographs as they move to and from the ground and are sold around the world. Based on extensive fieldwork at a leading international news agency that includes participant observation with photographers in the field, at the agency's local and global picture desks in Israel, Singapore, and the UK, in-depth interviews with pictures professionals, and observations and in-depth interviews at The Guardian's picture desk in London, the findings in this book point to a wide cultural production infrastructure hidden from - and yet also nurtured and thus very much determined by - the consumer's eye.

Magazine Law is a comprehensive guide to the law for magazine journalists, editors and managers. Written by a barrister experienced in publishing and copyright law and a former magazine journalist and law lecturer, the book addresses the special needs of the magazine industry and explains the laws that regulate and seek to determine what journalists can and cannot publish, and how these laws are applied in everyday situations.
Written specifically for all those in the magazine industry, as well as students of magazine journalism, the authors address issues which directly affect day to day practice. The legal and regulatory framework is illustrated with case studies and up-to-date examples of precedent setting cases.
Topics covered include:
* the legal process and the distinction between criminal and civil law
* the role of the courts and reporting court procedure
* defamation, fair-comment and libel
* product testing and criticism
* copyright and passing off
* law for photographers, picture researchers and the use of illustrations
* privacy and trespass
* competition, lotteries and magazine promotion
* sub-editing errors and inaccurate copy
* ethical and professional issues facing journalists
Codes of Practice published by the Press Complaints Commission and National Union of Journalists are set out in appendices, as are requirements for the award of a National Vocational Qualification in Periodical Journalism in Press Law and Ethics. A glossary of legal terms is included.

In this political communication text, Richard M. Perloff examines the various ways in which messages are constructed and communicated from public officials and politicians through the mass media to the ultimate receivers-the people. With a focus on the history of political communication, he provides an overview of the most significant issues in the study of politics and the media.
In addition to synthesizing facts and theories, and highlighting the scholarly contributions made to the understanding of political communication effects, "Political Communication" addresses such factors as the rhetorical accomplishments of American presidents, the ongoing tangles between the press and the presidency, and the historical roots of politics as it is practiced and studied today. It also addresses major issues about the press and politics that continually resurface, such as question of press bias and the use and manipulation of media by politicians to accomplish national goals.
As a comprehensive and engaging introduction to contemporary political communication, this volume provides all readers with a historical perspective on American politics and press and offers a unique appreciation of the strengths and virtues of political communication in America.

In this political communication text, Richard M. Perloff examines the various ways in which messages are constructed and communicated from public officials and politicians through the mass media to the ultimate receivers-the people. With a focus on the history of political communication, he provides an overview of the most significant issues in the study of politics and the media.
In addition to synthesizing facts and theories, and highlighting the scholarly contributions made to the understanding of political communication effects, "Political Communication" addresses such factors as the rhetorical accomplishments of American presidents, the ongoing tangles between the press and the presidency, and the historical roots of politics as it is practiced and studied today. It also addresses major issues about the press and politics that continually resurface, such as question of press bias and the use and manipulation of media by politicians to accomplish national goals.
As a comprehensive and engaging introduction to contemporary political communication, this volume provides all readers with a historical perspective on American politics and press and offers a unique appreciation of the strengths and virtues of political communication in America.

Sacred Sites, Sacred Places explores the concept of 'sacred' and what it means to people in differing cultures. Archaeologists, legislators and those involved in heritage management sometimes come into conflict with local populations over sites which these communities consider to be sacred. This volume is unique in attempting to describe the belief systems surrounding such sites, and in relating these beliefs and practices to the practical problems of heritage management. The book demonstrates the need to accommodate those beliefs which are a vital part of ongoing cultural identity.
The geographical coverage of this collection is exceptionally wide and its range of contributors, including indigenous peoples, archaeologists, anthropologists and heritage professionals, is unrivalled in any other publication.

Basic TV Reporting is a practical, easy to read guide to the skills needed to become a successful television reporter - arguably the most demanding and glamorous job in journalism. The book describes the role in detail, how reporters fit into the editorial team and where their duties begin and end.

Basic TV Reporting is a practical, easy to read guide to the skills needed to become a successful television reporter - arguably the most demanding and glamorous job in journalism. The book describes the role in detail, how reporters fit into the editorial team and where their duties begin and end.
The late Ivor Yorke has enjoyed a wealth of experience to pass on to aspiring broadcast journalists, having spent more than 20 years as a writer, reporter, producer and editor, before becoming Head of Journalist Training, BBC News and Current Affairs. He was also a freelance training consultant. He is the author of Television News (now in its third edition) and co-author with the late Bernard Hesketh of An Introduction to ENG, also published by Focal Press.
Reviews:
This is a short, well-constructed book which is of as much value to the interviewed as to the interviewer. It is practical and down-to-earth (keep off the gin, and stick to the tonic') and delightfully easy to read.'
British Journal of Educational Technology.
' Easy to read guide to the skills needed to become a successful TV
reporter.'
Voice of the Listener
Learn how to be a successful anchorman and commentator
Read how to handle difficult interviewees and multi-interview programmes and talkshows
take care when working on dangerous assignments The legal constraints and ethical considerationsfaced by reporters are also covered.

The widespread use of the Internet as a tool for gathering and disseminating information raises serious questions for journalists--and their readers--about the process of reporting information. Using virtual sources and publishing online is changing the way in which journalism takes place and its effect on the society it serves.
USE LAST THREE PARAGRAPHS ONLY FOR GENERAL CATALOGS... "The Electronic Grapevine" explores the use of online media by reporters in the United States, and examines the impact that usage may have on how journalism is framed in the cultural sphere, as well as how it is conducted in the professional one. It contains a mix of material examining how it feels to "do" online journalism, how it affects those who consume it, different ways that media scholars go about trying to understand it better, and the likely social and cultural impact of Internet-like technologies on the public, at whom all this electronic information is eventually aimed.
Drawing from the emerging scholarly work in the field and from the real-life experiences of working journalists, Borden and Harvey collect contributions that examine why journalists use the Internet, what changes it makes in how they approach their jobs, and what differences they see in conducting their daily newsgathering with this medium rather than other methods. The volume also analyses when and why journalists do not use online media and what the impact of the decision to use or not use the Internet may mean for the outer world, whose perceptions of itself are so often shaped by journalistic portrait.
This series of thought-provoking, original essays explores the impact of computer-based information and communication services on traditional journalistic routines and practices, and thereby addresses a critical gap in the scholarly literature on communication, law, and culture. Distinguishing between linkage devices like the Internet, and database resources such as LEXIS/NEXIS, America Online, and others, this book examines the ways in which both types of online services may reshape and redefine not only the products of journalistic effort, but the newsgathering process itself.

This little gem of a book, which first appeared in 1920, was written in Walter Lippmann's thirtieth year. He was still full of the passionate faith in democracy that was evident in his writings before the First World War. From today's point of view, Lippmann's argument seems unusually prescient. He was troubled by distortions in newspaper journalism, but was also deeply aware of the need to protect a free press. Lippmann believed that toleration of alternative beliefs was essential to maintaining the vitality of democracy. Liberty and the News is a key transitional work in the corpus of Lippmann's writings. For it is here that he proposes that public opinion is largely a response not to truths but rather to a "pseudo-environment" which exists between people and the external world. Lippmann was worried that if the beliefs that get exchanged between people are hollow, and bear only a purely accidental relationship to the world as it truly is, then the entire case for democracy is in danger of having been built on sand. His concerns remain very much alive and important.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, tens of thousands of Yiddish speaking immigrants actively participated in the American Socialist and labor movement. They formed the milieu of the hugely successful daily Forverts (Forward), established in New York in April 1897. Its editorial columns and bylined articles-many of whose authors, such as Abraham Cahan and Sholem Asch, were household names at the time-both reflected and shaped the attitudes and values of the readership. Most pages of this book are focused on the newspaper's reaction to the political developments in the home country. Profound admiration of Russian literature and culture did not mitigate the writers' criticism of the czarist and Soviet regimes.

Conducting computer analyses for the purposes of revealing information of significance to the press represents an extension of one of the most important forms of American journalism into the contemporary era of new technologies. Investigative reporting had its start with the establishment of the metropolitan newspaper during the early decades of the 1900s. At the time, it was a continuation of the evolving tradition of freedom of the press that had characterized American political life since colonial times. As it developed, investigative reporting stressed "facts" rather than the opinions of the editor or reporter. In turn, that tradition had its own intellectual roots. Today, computer-assisted investigative reporting (CAIR) extends that marketplace of ideas into systematic examinations of the electronic records of government. In addition, computer analyses of other kinds of information systematically gathered by journalists can provide the press with insights into trends and patterns unlikely to be revealed by other means.
This unique volume addresses procedures and issues in investigative journalism that have not been explained in other publications. It sets forth -- for the first time -- a detailed and specific "methodology" for conducting computer-assisted investigative analyses of both large and small scale electronic records of government and other agencies. That methodology consists of the logic of inquiry, strategies for reaching valid conclusions, and rules for reporting what has been revealed by the analyses to the public in clear ways. Such systematic methodologies are essential in social and other sciences and the development of a counterpart for investigative journalism has been badly needed.
That systematic methodology is developed within a context that explains the origin and major characteristics of those elements that have come together in American society to make computer-assisted investigative reporting both possible and increasingly a part of standard newsroom practices. These include the development of traditional investigative journalism, the evolution of computer technology, the use of computers by government to keep records, the legal evolution of freedom of information laws, the rapid adoption of computers in newsrooms, the increasing importance of precision journalism, and the sharp increase in recent times of computer-assisted investigative reporting by American newspapers both large and small. The issues addressed in this book are discussed in a very readable context with an abundance of examples and illustrations drawn from the real world of journalism as it is practiced daily in newsrooms around the country. Explanations of concepts, principles, and procedures are set forth in layperson's terms that require very little in the way of knowledge of computers or statistical methods.

The Journalist's Companion is the book for every journalist and journalism student's coat pocket or backpack. Anchored by an annotated copy of the U.S. Constitution, this slim and portable volume provides guidance, inspiration, and practical advice for being a journalist today. A veteran front-line news reporter and professor of journalism for another twenty years, Christopher B. Daly has seen the attempts to silence and intimidate journalists. The Journalist's Companion gives reporters, editors, and students the inspiration to stand tall along with advice to do their work well, accurately, and fearlessly. This book also includes a brief guide on how to file a Freedom of Information Act demand, a checklist for reporters and editors designed to increase the level of accuracy in their work, a primer on copyright and professional courtesy, and a quick guide to staying safe while on assignment.

For journalists and reporters, the allegation of hegemonic practices constitute a most serious condemnation. It supposes that the media is working in the interest of the political establishment to create a false counsciousness. However, starting with Raymond Williams's refined definition of hegemony, the author shows how hegemony is an almost unwitting process which supports the status quo and the establishment. This text illustrates how this "soft hegemony" is manifest in the everyday workings of the media, and all the more so, when the media are on one side of a serious conflict. Considering the reporting of the Israel-Arab conflict and the 1991 Gulf War, Liebes demonstrates how national journalism supports the dominant ideology. This unintentional assimilation is the result of shared values, the inaccessibility of the other side, the preference for celebrating success rather than exposing failure, and a wish to be popular with the public. It shows how journalists abandon their watch-dog role, however, unintentionally, to support "our side", especially in time of war.

This volume addresses some of the central issues of journalism today -- the nature and needs of the individual versus the nature and needs of the broader society; theories of communitarianism versus Enlightenment liberalism; independence versus interdependence (vs. co-dependency); negative versus positive freedoms; Constitutional mandates versus marketplace mandates; universal ethical issues versus situational and/or professional values; traditional values versus information age values; ethics of management versus ethics of worker bees; commitment and compassion versus detachment and professional distance; conflicts of interest versus conflicted disinterest; and talking to versus talking with. All of these issues are discussed within the framework of the frenetic field of daily journalism--a field that operates at a pace and under a set of professional standards that all but preclude careful, systematic examinations of its own rituals and practices. The explorations presented here not only advance the enterprise, but also help student and professional observers to work through some of the most perplexing dilemmas to have faced the news media and public in recent times.
This lively volume showcases the differing opinions of journalistic experts on this significant contemporary issue in public life. Unlike previous books and monographs which have tended toward unbridled enthusiasm about public journalism, and trade press articles which have tended toward pessimism, this book offers strong voices on several sides of this complex debate.
To help inform the debate, a series of voices--journalistic interviews with practitioners and critics of public journalism -- is interspersed throughout the text. At the end of each essay, a series of quotes from a wide variety of sources -- In other words... -- augments each chapter with ideas and insights that support and contradict the points used by each chapter author.

This volume addresses some of the central issues of journalism today -- the nature and needs of the individual versus the nature and needs of the broader society; theories of communitarianism versus Enlightenment liberalism; independence versus interdependence (vs. co-dependency); negative versus positive freedoms; Constitutional mandates versus marketplace mandates; universal ethical issues versus situational and/or professional values; traditional values versus information age values; ethics of management versus ethics of worker bees; commitment and compassion versus detachment and professional distance; conflicts of interest versus conflicted disinterest; and talking to versus talking with. All of these issues are discussed within the framework of the frenetic field of daily journalism--a field that operates at a pace and under a set of professional standards that all but preclude careful, systematic examinations of its own rituals and practices. The explorations presented here not only advance the enterprise, but also help student and professional observers to work through some of the most perplexing dilemmas to have faced the news media and public in recent times.
This lively volume showcases the differing opinions of journalistic experts on this significant contemporary issue in public life. Unlike previous books and monographs which have tended toward unbridled enthusiasm about public journalism, and trade press articles which have tended toward pessimism, this book offers strong voices on several sides of this complex debate.
To help inform the debate, a series of voices--journalistic interviews with practitioners and critics of public journalism -- is interspersed throughout the text. At the end of each essay, a series of quotes from a wide variety of sources -- In other words... -- augments each chapter with ideas and insights that support and contradict the points used by each chapter author.

Conducting computer analyses for the purposes of revealing information of significance to the press represents an extension of one of the most important forms of American journalism into the contemporary era of new technologies. Investigative reporting had its start with the establishment of the metropolitan newspaper during the early decades of the 1900s. At the time, it was a continuation of the evolving tradition of freedom of the press that had characterized American political life since colonial times. As it developed, investigative reporting stressed "facts" rather than the opinions of the editor or reporter. In turn, that tradition had its own intellectual roots. Today, computer-assisted investigative reporting (CAIR) extends that "marketplace of ideas" into systematic examinations of the electronic records of government. In addition, computer analyses of other kinds of information systematically gathered by journalists can provide the press with insights into trends and patterns unlikely to be revealed by other means.
This unique volume addresses procedures and issues in investigative journalism that have not been explained in other publications. It sets forth -- for the first time -- a detailed and specific "methodology" for conducting computer-assisted investigative analyses of both large and small scale electronic records of government and other agencies. That methodology consists of the logic of inquiry, strategies for reaching valid conclusions, and rules for reporting what has been revealed by the analyses to the public in clear ways. Such systematic methodologies are essential in social and other sciences and the development of a counterpart for investigative journalism has been badly needed.
That systematic methodology is developed within a context that explains the origin and major characteristics of those elements that have come together in American society to make computer-assisted investigative reporting both possible and increasingly a part of standard newsroom practices. These include the development of traditional investigative journalism, the evolution of computer technology, the use of computers by government to keep records, the legal evolution of freedom of information laws, the rapid adoption of computers in newsrooms, the increasing importance of precision journalism, and the sharp increase in recent times of computer-assisted investigative reporting by American newspapers both large and small. The issues addressed in this book are discussed in a very readable context with an abundance of examples and illustrations drawn from the real world of journalism as it is practiced daily in newsrooms around the country. Explanations of concepts, principles, and procedures are set forth in layperson's terms that require very little in the way of knowledge of computers or statistical methods.

Michael Wharton, of course, was Peter Simple of the Daily Telegraph. A Dubious Codicil is the second and more rare volume of his autobiography. It takes up his story in 1957 when the author first started working for the Daily Telegraph where he remained for thirty-three years writing the Way of the World column. He soon established a name as the funniest and most mordant columnist in Britain, combining splendid comic characters, for example, Mrs Dutt-Pauker the Hampstead thinker and Julian Birdbath the depressed man of letters, with philippics on the evils of the age, from television and mass tourism to flights to the moon and almost any activity involving scientists and men in white coats. And yet, by a pleasing paradox, his dislike of the permissive society did not prevent him from leading an unconventional life which, as he gleefully points out, might have shocked more hidebound journalists, dutifully making their way to suburban homes while the arch-eccentrics of the Telegraph gathered in Fleet Street's Kings and Keys. Their world and their highly unorthodox behaviour are vividly brought to life. But this bohemian existence was troubled, in Michael Wharton's case, by a growing sense of futility and time passing. Temporary salvation, at least, lay to hand in his beloved Westmorland where, with congenial local companions, he helped to save the Eden Valley from the onslaught of developers. A Missing Will, the first volume of his autobiography, is also available in Faber Finds. '. . . .Yet the book is quite fascinating to read . . . It is partly the fascination of following a well-known and well-loved character through this vales of tears - however much he may suppose he has hidden himself behind the personality of Peter Simple, however unknown and unloved he may imagine himself to be, there can be few readers of Peter Simple who will not ''identify'' with him. It is also partly the high interest of watching a giant among familiar contemporary scenes, as if Shakespeare had emerged in the garb of Mr Pooter.' Auberon Waugh, Sunday Telegraph

The Management of Savagery of tells the story of the parallel rise of international jihadism and Western ultra-nationalism. Since Washington's secret funding of the Mujahideen following the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in the 1970s, America has supported extremists with money and hardware, including enemies such as Bin Laden. The Pentagon's willingness to make alliances abroad have seen the war coming home with inevitable consequences: by funding, training, and arming jihadist elements in Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya since the Cold War and waging wars of regime change and interventions that gave birth to the Islamic State. Meanwhile, Trump's dealings In the Middle East are likely only to exacerbate the situation further. Blumenthal excavates the real story behind America's dealing with the world and shows how the extremist forces that now threaten peace across the globe are the inevitable flowering of America's imperial designs of a national security state. And shows how this has ended with the rise of the Trump presidency.

Computers have changed the landscape of both gathering and disseminating information throughout the world. As journalists quickly move toward the 21st century and perhaps, a new era of electronic journalism, resources are needed to understand the newest and most successful computer-based news reporting strategies. Written to serve that purpose, this book is designed to show both professional journalists and students which of the newest personal computing tools are being used by the nation's leading news organizations and top individual journalists. It further describes how these resources are being used on a daily basis and for special projects.
In recent years, computers have taken on new and dominating roles in the process of news analysis, newsgathering, and news processing. Today's forward-thinking journalists often seek guidance over what they can do to strengthen their ability to be society's information processors and managers. This volume focuses upon how successful journalists are using computers through a major national computer-assisted reporting (CAR) study of daily newspapers. The study included two national surveys and a series of personal interviews with many of the nation's leading CAR specialists. Several current examples of stories used for successful database- and online-oriented news assignments are provided as part of a series of case studies incorporated throughout the book. The additional depth of description and the presentation of portions of stories themselves should help readers to understand the complete process involving CAR-oriented journalism.
Substantial analytical detail is used to discuss the extent of computer use in newsrooms, computer training, CAR projects, CAR in daily reporting, hardware and software most commonly used, levels and types of online services used in news research, and portable hardware and software. The book concludes with the author's assessment of the effects and impact of personal computing in the newsroom and the future of personal computer applications in newsgathering. Explaining and defining advanced applications or terminology for readers, the approach to the book assumes a minimal familiarity with computers, but no advanced knowledge of computer operation.

Who are U.S. journalists? What are their backgrounds and educational experiences? Why did they choose journalism as an occupation? What do they think about their work? What are their professional and ethical values? What kinds of work do they consider their best? Do men differ from women on these questions? Do ethnic and racial minorities differ from the majority? Do journalists working for different print and broadcast news media differ?
This book uses findings from the most comprehensive and representative study ever done of the demographic and educational backgrounds, working conditions, and professional and ethical values of 1,410 U.S. print and broadcast journalists working in the 1990s to answer these questions, including separate analyses for women and minority news people. It also compares many of these findings with those from the major studies of the early 1970s and 1980s. As such, it should be the standard reference on U.S. journalists for years to come.
In addition, this study goes beyond the previous two in adding more open-ended questions to explain and enrich quantitative findings, in the belief that the numbers by themselves are not enough to provide explanations for the patterns that emerge. This book includes more of the journalists' own words to fill this gap, as well as an analysis of samples of their self-selected best work.

From the bestselling author of 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves', this is the hilarious new book from Lynne Truss about her strange journey through the world of sport and sports journalism. 'Years ago, Boris Becker famously said, after losing at Wimbledon, "Nobody died. I just lost a tennis match." And while some people applauded him for his healthy sense of proportion, it didn't ring remotely true. While I was writing about sport, I was caught on the horns of this dilemma for the whole bloody time. I was like the poor confused jurors in 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' who sit in their jury box, writing emphatically on their little slates, both "important" and "not important" because they honestly don't have a clue.' In this magnificent book, Lynne Truss charts her often bizarre wanderings during her time as a sports journalist for the 'Sunday Times'. From covering a heavyweight world title fight at Madison Square Garden, to watching England beat Holland from an airship above Wembley (while eating chocolate cake); from her extravagant feelings about Andre Agassi, to covering sports like cricket (where, initially, she didn't have any idea what was going on), Lynne Truss manages to crystallize exactly the essence of what sport is about, and bring her characteristic wisdom and wry humour to it. The book will be a revelation to sport's foolish doubters, and a treat for the many of us who spend too much of our time watching it.