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Sloan, W. David, and Lisa Mullikin Parcell, eds. American Journalism: History, Principles, Practices. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2002. 384 pp. $39.95.
Some things are better than the sum of their parts. American Journalism, a collection of thirty-eight essays focusing on the historical development of one aspect of the foundations of journalism, is the opposite. While the book's overall standard gets high marks, some essays are better than others, and, taken as a whole, there is a bit too much overlap from chapter to chapter. Thus, the work, edited by prolific author and American Journalism Historians Association founder W. David Sloan and a doctoral student at the University of Alabama, works better as a reference for those seeking an overview of, say, the history of objectivity (chapter 21 or investigative journalism (chapter 22) than as a text to be read cover...