Book Review: Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media:

TLDR: Lealand as discussed by the authors reviewed Hirst's book and found that it shifts a little uneasily at times between local (New Zealand) and global examples of change and consequences, and in respect of New Zealand it does omit some important background information, such as the body of knowledge about journalists in New Zealand compiled through periodic surveys by interested parties.

Abstract: No. 139 — May 2011 book, article or judgment, and it does tend to make for some uneven writing. I just wish Hirst had greater faith in his own analysis, for he does have excellent ideas and political commitment. He also has a great turn of phrase when he lets himself loose, as in the following: ‘the lunatic rantings of the blogosphere’s outer spirals and the poisonous blather of the social media dribblejaws’ (p. 111). This should really have been a more sharply focused and tightly edited book. It shifts a little uneasily at times between local (New Zealand) and global examples of change and consequences, and in respect of New Zealand it does omit some important background information – such as the body of knowledge about journalists in New Zealand compiled through periodic surveys by interested parties such as the New Zealand Journalists Training Organisation (certainly a more authoritative source that the Reader’s Digest survey cited on p. 28). Hirst’s political agenda is also very visible and very welcome. As journalists face unprecedented challenges, he sees opportunities for a reappraisal of the purpose of both mainstream journalism and journalism training. As a journalism educator at the Auckland University of Technology, he considers that there are now opportunities to challenge and question ‘the ideology of professionalism’ (p. 204) that sustains mainstream journalism, so we might begin to improve news content and set other news agendas in the name of ‘optimism’ and ‘freedom’, rather than await the ultimate demise of journalism as we know it. As I write this review, New Zealanders are glued to their radios or television sets for news of the brutal earthquake in Christchurch on 22 February. It is a reminder that the mainstream media are still with us, despite all the proliferation of news sources now available via digital technology. It is also a reminder of the vital role mainstream media can provide in times of national trauma. But, as I suspect Hirst might argue, such times are also a sad reminder of how the media has abandoned its responsibilities in many other areas of national life. – Geoff Lealand, Screen and Media Studies, University of Waikato