[Air-L] Book announcement!

[Liz R]

Hello colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the publication of my book “Push the Button : Interactive Television and Collaborative Journalism in Japan”, available from https://www.dukeupress.edu/push-the-button (among places).

Push the Button tells the story of two groups working to innovate Japanese mass media in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. One group, working from inside the major TV networks, sought to use interactivity as a strategy to bring new voices into television and to attract young viewers back to the platform. The other, the independent journalists, perceived the mainstream media as too broken and sought to design a new kind of journalism around interactive, bidirectional broadcasts. Both groups shared a common idealism, if not equivalent resources, and sought to solve a problem of culture through technology. This book is an ethnography based on 18 months of fieldwork in the industry, spanning TV networks and independent journalism startups. It argues that content conservatism ultimately triumphed over technological innovation, and that new technology was unable to overcome the entrenched structure of corporate media. 

It might be of interest to those in media studies, East Asian studies, anthropology, STS, and communication. 

I appreciate you taking a look!

Warmly,

Liz