Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Understanding Aggregation in Context
1. Gathering Evidence of Evidence: Aggregation as Second-Order Newswork
2. Making News by Managing Uncertainty
3. Inferiority and Identity: Aggregators and the Journalistic Profession
4. Clickbait, Analytics, and Gut Feelings: How Aggregators Understand Their Audiences
5. Atomization and the Breakdown (and Rebuilding) of News Narrative
6. Conclusion: Aggregation, Authority, and Uncertainty
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Mark Coddington is assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Washington and Lee University. He is a former newspaper reporter and a contributor to Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab. His research has been published in Mass Communication and Society; Journalism: Theory, Practice, and Criticism; Journalism Studies; and the International Journal of Communication.

Reviews

Coddington weaves a masterful tale of ‘second-order newswork’ and ‘knockoff knowledge’ as well as aggregation’s undermining of journalistic authority. Aggregating the News is impeccably researched from within news organizations and offers the definitive statement on information aggregation in all its complexities and contexts. Analyzing news aggregation’s 250-year-old history, its emergent values, and evolving constraints, this book is a critical read for all who care about journalism.
*Sue Robinson, author of Networked News, Racial Divides: How Power and Privilege Shape Public Discourse in Progressive Communities*

Is all digital aggregation just, as Fleetwood Mac might put it, "secondhand news"? Is public knowledge enhanced or debased by the practice of rewriting, recombining, or recontextualizing pieces of journalism? What are the professional and legal issues at stake? In this absorbing volume, Mark Coddington takes us deep into a professional community that has always been controversial but also always fascinating.
*C. W. Anderson, author of Apostles of Certainty: Data Journalism and the Politics of Doubt*

Coddington dispels the tired argument that news aggregation by lazy online news outlets has destroyed good journalism as we know it and instead shows how aggregation is at once a historical practice as old as journalism itself while also a key element of news innovation.
*Nikki Usher, author of Interactive Journalism: Hackers, Data, and Code*

Provides timely insights and information about news aggregation services...A valuable resource for those studying journalism, mass media, and social media.
*Choice*

A valuable text for journalists as well as public relations professionals who are often tasked with creating news.
*Communication Booknotes Quarterly*

Well written and informative; it would be a valuable resource for graduate students and scholars who want to understand how specific journalistic actors work and contribute to the journalism field.
*Media Industries Journal*