Requirements for professional media editing have undergone enormous technological change. Editors still edit copy. But today they do much more. Mass media editors must demonstrate skills from computerized pagination to social media monitoring, from image manipulation to Search Engine Optimization. The need for editing skills is reaching far beyond traditional journalism and into all areas of mass media, from newspapers to strategic communication. Public relations practitioners are expected to edit. Even advertising creative professionals must edit. And journalists taking on new roles as social media editors need to understand editing at the speed of digital media.

This textbook aims to prepare university-level students for these expanded editing roles in an age of convergence. Thirteen authors representing many years of collective media experience examine both traditional editing roles and new editing needs. While many mass media students will not become professional editors, this textbook assumes nearly all will need competent editing knowledge to produce products of professional quality. Editing, the authors believe, remains a bedrock skill for all students who hope to be successful in the mass media.

Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Ross F. Collins is a professor of communication at North Dakota State University, Fargo.

Edited by Ross F. Collins

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 232
Bibliographic Info: 40 photos, notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2013
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7342-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0203-5
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction      3
One. Editing Across Media
Margot Opdycke Lamme 3
Two. Editing Begins with the Writer
Mavis Richardson 16
Three. Think Like an Editor
Deneen Gilmour 40
Four. Editors, Ethics and the Law
Paulette D. Kilmer 62
Five. Headlines and Headings
Chris Roberts 82
Six. Typography Then and Now
Jim R. Martin 102
Seven. The Visual Editor
William E. Huntzicker and Ross F. Collins 121
Eight. Page Makeup: Beginning the Design Process
Amy Mattson Lauters 139
Nine. Page Design on Paper and Screen
Therese L. Lueck and Val Pipps 162
Ten. Editing in a Converged World
Ross F. Collins and Cameron Haaland 186
Eleven.  A Final Project: Editing a Magazine
Victoria Goff 204
About the Contributors 221
Index 223

• “Address[es] the most common grammar and usage mistakes that students make”—Reference & Research Book News
• “the essays are well written and each includes a bibliography and student exercises”—Technical Communication