The untapped power of the press.

• Author: Alter, Jonathan

The Untapped Power of the Press.

The Untapped Power of the Press. Lewis W. Wolfson. Praeger, $28.95. Wolfson's aim is to convince the press that it can make better use of its power. The way to do that, he says, is not more surprise and titillation, but more effective explanation of how government works. You have to hand it to Wolfson for avoiding the usual litany of press inadequacies that make up most books about news coverage. As the theme for a prescriptive, analytical book on the press, Wolfson's is the right one. The so-called "process' stories don't have to be boring.

The issue is how to make them interesting. Typically, they are not the first stories readers look for. Here, Wolfson's book reflects some of the same problems that plague the process stories he recommends. In a chapter on politics and elections, he suggests process questions that reporters should try to answer instead of repetitively tracking the horse race: "How much did noisy TV advertising attacks and counterattacks contribute to the public's apathy and failure to vote? What happens to the integrity of the political process over time if politicians keep concocting images, making promises and raising hopes that will never be fulfilled?' These are worthy questions; the problem is how to turn them into an actual story--a mechanical but nonetheless essential process that gets short shrift here. The usual way to build a non-breaking story is to get the...