Burton St. John's Book Projects
I naturally gravitate to people's stories through the book format.
Below, you'll see the 10 books I've been involved in over a 15-year period,
as either a writer, or a lead editor, or both. Seven of the 10 books feature contributions from other authors, which called on my extensive collaboration, time-management, and editing skills.
To discuss your book project, contact me at webspinner1@verizon.net
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PERSONALIZED NEWS COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA TRUST IN THE MODERN ERA (PALGRAVE MACMILLAN)
Full of original research, including interviews with journalists, public relations professionals, and everyday citizens from across the nation, this work examines how journalists are pursuing various approaches to personalize news accounts. In an era where news consumers are increasingly skeptical of mainstream news reporting, this book offers evidence and insights about how journalists are taking new routes to engage with citizens. This book points to how journalists are going beyond algorithms to try to build connections with citizens and, hopefully, keep them coming back for more. Here's Palgrave/Macmillan's description.
COMMUNICATING CLIMATE CHANGE: MAKING ENVIRONMENTAL MESSAGING ACCESSIBLE (ROUTLEDGE)
This book offers observations and case studies on how to more effectively offer climate change communication from three different perspectives: communicating with the public; communicating for stakeholder engagement; and organizational, institutional, risk, and disaster communication. Featuring both US and international contributors, readers will find practical steps for communicating that is informed by theory and research. Here's Routledge's description.
THE GLOBAL FOUNDATIONS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS: HUMANISM, CHINA AND THE WEST (ROUTLEDGE)
This work explores the growing humanistic turn in public relations processes and proposes that this has compelling parallels in the roots of Chinese philosophies. Here's Routledge's description.
CASES IN PUBLIC RELATIONS STRATEGY (SAGE)
This book offers what no other public relations book offers: an exclusive focus on first-person accounts of public relations campaigns. More than 50 contributors reveal what worked (and what could have been improved) in their public relations initiatives. Here's SAGE's description. Rated by Book Authority as one of the top books to read about Public Relations in 2019.
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND THE CORPORATE PERSONA: THE RISE OF THE AFFINITIVE ORGANIZATION (ROUTLEDGE)
Much like people, corporations attempt to tell stories about the world around them. This volume is the first book-length examination of how U.S. corporations tell stories that attempt to show to citizens that they are not just businesses, but fellow, human-like companions. In 2018, this book became only the third public relations book to be a finalist for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication's prestigious Tankard Book Award. Here's a review from AEJMC's Journal of Public Relations Education and Routledge's description.
CRISIS COMMUNICATION AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT: AN ETHICAL APPROACH (SAGE)
This book took on the distinctive approach of integrating ethical perspectives into all of its 21 crisis communication case studies. No other book devoted to covering crisis stories took on this approach. Here's SAGE's description.
PATHWAYS TO PUBLIC RELATIONS: HISTORIES OF PRACTICE AND PROFESSION (ROUTLEDGE)
This volume, which became one of the first public relations books to be a finalist for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication's prestigious Tankard Book Award, provides stories about public relations that arose across a wide variety of times and places. Here's Routledge's description.
NEWS WITH A VIEW: ESSAYS ON THE ECLIPSE OF OBJECTIVITY IN MODERN JOURNALISM (MCFARLAND)
This books offers accounts from 19 scholars, many who were former journalists, about how objective storytelling in journalism is disappearing. Here's McFarland's description.
PUBLIC JOURNALISM 2.0: THE PROMISE AND REALITY OF A CITIZEN-ENGAGED PRESS (ROUTLEDGE)
This volume presented how 17 observers (many of them former journalists) saw journalism's storytelling changing as news consumers turned away from traditional news. Here's a review from Journalism and Mass Comm Quarterly and Routledge's description.
PRESS PROFESSIONALIZATION AND PROPAGANDA: THE RISE OF JOURNALISTIC DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS, 1917-1941 (CAMBRIA PRESS)
This book examines how the U.S. press saw its storytelling approaches greatly affected by the rise of the modern public relations industry between WWI and the onset of U.S. involvement in WWII. Here is Cambria Press's description.