Interactive Journalism: Hackers, Data, and Code Paperback – October 13, 2016

Usher has written an outstanding study of a growing phenomenon in digital journalism - the process of using code, and often substantial data, to build beautiful, engaging interactive features about the news. Usher is an academic, but this isn't just a theoretical book. She's visited numerous news organizations and conducted hundreds of interviews, and the book has vivid description and thoughtful quotes from journalists doing cutting-edge work around the world.I expect that academics and grad students interested in digital journalism, hacking and coding, and the future of news will be the group that finds this book most appealing - Usher does an excellent job putting interactive journalism in a sociological context, and her exploration of 'professional subspecialties' is especially insightful. But I'd recommend this book to college students and professional journalists, too. It's a great picture of how those jaw-dropping news interactives are made, how the people who make them think, and what it takes to do that kind of work.