This review of my book, Mobile and Social Media Journalism: A Practical Guide, was published in the journal Journalism & Mass Communication Educator. Many thanks to Professor Adrienne Wallace for taking the the time to share her thoughts about the book. More info about the book can be found on its companion website: http://mobileandsocialmediajournalism.com

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Book Review
Book Review
Anthony Adornato
Mobile and Social Media Journalism—A Practical Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press, 2018.
197 pp. $26. ISBN: 9781506357140
Reviewed by: Adrienne A. Wallace, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI, USA
DOI: 10.1177/1077695818799863
“Isn’t journalism dying?”
Adornato, assistant professor of journalism at Ithica College, opens with this ques-
tion he is often asked in an era where “fake news” is a phrase repeatedly uttered as in
an attempt to insert doubt into hearts and minds. Adornato addresses the question fol-
lowing a checklist to identify “fake news” tucked within the inside cover of his publi-
cation with a resounding, “no.”
In what is perhaps the most exciting time in journalistic history, the evolution of news
is a focus of many communication programs. In this premiere edition of Mobile and Social
Media Journalism, the author does a sound job of integration of both task and message,
choosing to focus on both the medium and the message to prepare students for a profession
that employs current and future fact-finders to consider using mobile and social to news-
gather, distribute content, and engage with their audience. These three recurring points
drive the bulk of this book in considering a “digital-first” approach to streamline the pro-
cess of gathering, producing, and publishing content to multiple platforms with multiple
audiences with the big-picture in mind: technology’s impact on journalism.
In an adaptive and resilient manner, similar to the journalist he is trying to build
with this book, Adornato arms future journalists with strategies that emphasize the
core of journalism—verification and objectivity—as they relate to and impact social
media practices, to maintain the notorious and beloved journalistic standards. A ben-
efit of this text is that it seems to be easily paired with other multimedia journalism
courses and/or student newspaper productions as its price point online varies in cost
and could accompany another text on say, writing if the instructor so desired.
As Adornato states in his preface, “each chapter builds on the previous one, but you
can also read chapters in any order you choose in order to learn about specific skills at
any time” (p. xii), this book also bodes well for use in a media relations course in pub-
lic relations to reverse engineer journalistic process to garner media attention. The
book itself is slim and easy to navigate with each chapter including checklists, social
media links, clearly articulated chapter objectives, ideas for portfolio building exer-
cises/activities, and includes a “From the Newsroom” feature where stories from jour-
nalists are shared. Do not glance at this book and consider it to lack theory or modeling,
you will be mistaken; it is apparent from this book that Adornato wants to build the
“journalist of tomorrow” with the integration of a variety of sources and approaches to
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writing for various platforms as well as self-production of stories but also a firm foot-
ing in communication theory, social media theory, and mass media frameworks.
Traditionally, engaging student in theoretical underpinnings of any communications
matter is mostly met with resistance; this book reinforces any “introduction to com-
munications” course with similar rigor but also delights with where theory slams into
practice.
A thorough examination of gatekeeping, audience influence on news, user-generated
content, intellectual property law, ethical underpinnings, social media policies, strategy,
“the hustle” for audience eyeballs on digitally produced content, theory, practice, the
evolution of “news,” and a little bit of future-telling make this a condensed text which
while comprehensive actually brings me to the only shortcoming that I would like to
emphasize, and that is, this reads a little bit more like a buffet and less like an entrée.
While the author mentions, taking the time to understand the paradigm shift of audience
participation and engagement in news flipping the model from one-way communication
to a two-way endeavor and that is truly sprinkled through the whole book, it does turn
away from the depth of coverage that may well be necessary to take today’s undergrad
and allow them to understand “life before a cell phone.” While the pros I am saturated
this review with makes this book both timely and relevant to even those that perhaps
only have experienced just the new model, I still think it is relevant to build a solid his-
torical appreciation for the paradigm shift, all while never sacrificing age-old signifi-
cance of trust and credibility through the eyes of the audience, which is seemingly in
peril with a war waged from the highest office in the United States. Be that as it may, I
never thought that this book was sensationalized or overly dramatized the field of digi-
tal-first journalism and remained true to the core principle of journalism: to provide citi-
zens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society. This
book emphasizes storytelling with a purpose to enhance and achieve this ideal.
What I found to be most attractive to this book is that students going into many
fields could draw from this practical application publication. Understanding what is
important to journalists is always very important to other areas in communication
professions like public relations, advertising, marketing, and sales. An especially rel-
evant chapter with high potential for use in other classes is titled “Your Social Media
Brand: Who Do You Want to Be?” which includes personal branding advisory data as
well as tactical expertise provided for “writing for the web” which includes modern
platforms like social channels but also those that have been around for a little longer,
like content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, which play a larger role than
ever before as many publishers move to digital news reporting with more web-based,
and less paper footprints. Finally, career advice is also dispensed in the final chapter
tying altogether the items to send a sound deliverable, the student to work in the ever-
changing field of digital journalism.
From my perspective, this book would be the perfect companion book in several
classes that would like to emphasize strong traditional journalism practice, extend-
ing the field and those entering, to the practicality of training them for “real life”—
that place we are always telling them about. It neither contradicts, nor denies,
traditional journalism priorities, it enhances them, much like an Instagram filter
does a photograph.