Foundations: Nurturing Journalistic Values or Threatening Independence?
The latest directory of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications lists no fewer than 26 foundations that nurture journalism. The programs range from year-long continuing education programs at first-rate universities to weekend workshops on specific issues to an examination of the bedrock values that define journalism. And the role of foundations in […]
Listening to the Public? Ghettoizing the Job
By Bill Theobald Public Life Reporter The Indianapolis Star and The Indianapolis News Often during a typical day in the newsroom, a smart-aleck reporter pipes up: “Hey, Bill, what’s the public saying today?” My smart-alecky response: “They’re declining comment.” Welcome to the public journalism ghetto. It’s a place where many journalists trying to do public […]
Elite Journalists and Their Communities: The Gap Has Widened
I grew up in the golden age of newspapers. There were seven dailies published in the Boston of my youth. The city editor of one of them was my cousin Bob. As the civic journalism movement has developed, I have thought a lot about Bob and what cross currents have changed the world of journalism […]
Needed: The Courage to be Different
Rebecca Rimel President, The Pew Charitable Trusts I’m here tonight with some good news. I believe the democratic heart today is beating louder and stronger in America, and I think the reason for it in large part is represented in this room. There are a lot of folks in this room who have enormous courage, […]
Media, Values, Moguls: Is the Compass Broken?
A Syposium Sponsored by the Pew Center with The Atlantic Monthly Century Club, New York City, April 16, 1997 James Fallows Editor, U.S. News and World Report The news business will survive this transition to being just another corporate model for producing its product. But the way in which we survive will aggravate, rather than […]
We Need to Do It or They’ll Do It Themselves
Glen Ritt Vice President, News and Information The Record, Hackensack, N.J. From March of last year to March of this year daily newspapers in the New York metropolitan area lost 100,000 in circulation daily and 300,000 Sunday. I was thinking about those incredible numbers while in Minneapolis recently where 3M held its annual meeting […]
The Challenge Is To Reclaim Our Moral Authority And Ask: How Do We Know What We Know?
The movie, Il Postino or The Postman, tells the story of a postal carrier in a little fishing village who falls into the orbit of the poet Pablo Nerudo. The whole community sort of falls into Pablo Nerudo’s sway. And there’s this scene in the movie where everyone is so excited because the newspaper has chosen to write about […]
Journalism: Broken, Unmoored From A Higher Calling
1997 Batten Awards Keynote Address Ervin S. Duggan President, Public Broadcasting Service What was the secret that made Jim Batten one of the truly great journalists? The answer that I would put forward would have something to do with the old religious concept of stewardship: the idea that we are not what we […]
“Liars, Incompetents, Distorters: Who Believes Journalists Any More?”
Panel discussion sponsored by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism in cooperation with The Atlantic Monthly – September 11, 1997, New York City Alex Jones, Moderator: Host, NPR’s On the Media: When you think about it, the press at its best is the bulwark in this country against lying, incompetence and distortion. We are, at […]
Today’s Journalism: An Assessment
By Max Jennings Editor, DaytonDaily News I guess this is as good a place as any to admit something. Some of what I’ve been doing most of my professional life is wrong. Dead wrong. I’ve spent most of the last 30 years or so as a detached journalist. Or so I thought. I think I […]