Social media has irrevocably changed how people consume the news. With the distinction between professional and citizen journalists blurring like never before, Digital Currents illuminates the behind-the-scenes efforts of television newscasters to embrace the public’s participation in news and information gathering and protect the integrity of professional journalism.

Using interviews with more than one hundred journalists from eight networks in Canada and the United Kingdom, Rena Bivens takes the reader inside TV newsrooms to explore how news organisations are responding to the paradigmatic shifts in media and communication practices. The first book to examine the many ways that the public has entered the production of mainstream news, Digital Currents underscores the central importance of media literacy in the age of widespread news sources.

Rena Bivens is a Government of Canada Banting Fellow in the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University.

Rena Bivens' profile page

“Digital Currents is a fascinating and detailed look at the inner mechanisms of television news production, news organizations, and journalistic labour, as they navigate the many challenges and opportunities of an era of declining budgets, vibrant forms of citizen journalism, and innovative uses of social media.”

Leslie Regan Shade, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto

“A timely reaffirmation of the power and continued relevance of broadcast news in a fast-evolving media ecology. What is particularly impressive about this book is the way that the author looks at how technology impacts many different aspects of the news production process in complex and unexpected ways. Bivens’s work represents a major contribution to the ongoing debate around journalism and new technology.”

Mike Berry, School of Journalism, Media, and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University

‘A rich and insightful account of television news today. Rena Bivens’ account of digital media and television news provides meaningful contributions to journalism and communications theory.’

International Journal of Communication vol 8:2014

‘Rena Bivens offers a commendably clear and robust analysis of the changing processes and structures of news production and dissemination… She has laid a strong foundation for considering the dynamic impact of technology on audiences and our most powerful news medium.’

Digital Journalism August 2014

‘Excellent new book by Carleton University communications scholar Rena Bivens… Digital Currents is like a probing forensic examination of today’s news culture that will be appreciated by media scholars and journalists as well as individuals and groups that want to understand better how the media works.’

Literary review of Canada, vol 22:05:2014