Our weekly roundup of news found at the intersection of media, politics, policy and technology, from the Shorenstein Center and from around the web.
This Week at the Shorenstein Center
Mother Jones Wins the 2017 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. The $25,000 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting from the Shorenstein Center has been awarded to Shane Bauer of Mother Jones for his investigative report “My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard.” Bauer spent four months working as a guard to get a deep look inside the secretive world of private prisons, exposing mismanagement. Within a few weeks, the Department of Justice announced it would end its use of private prisons and the Department of Homeland Security said it would consider doing the same. Additionally, the Shorenstein Center awarded the Career Award for Excellence in Journalism to Jorge Ramos. Read more about the award winners and finalists, and watch a video of the ceremony, including Jorge Ramos’ keynote speech.
Rick Stengel: Government and the Media. Rick Stengel, Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow and former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, discussed the differences between working in media and government, the Trump administration’s relationship with the press and how terrorist groups use social media, among other topics. Read highlights and listen to audio.
Helen Boaden and Ann Marie Lipinski: Media in the Age of Brexit and Trump. Helen Boaden, spring 2017 Joan Shorenstein Fellow and director of BBC Radio, and Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism, discussed the role of the press and social media in the Brexit referendum and the U.S. presidential election. Read highlights and listen to audio.
Leaders of “The Resistance.” A panel featuring leaders from five activist organizations discussed their efforts toward goals such as increasing voter turnout and encouraging more women and people of color to run for office. Moderated by Meighan Stone, Entrepreneurship Fellow and president of the Malala Fund. Read a summary in The Harvard Crimson and watch the video.
News from Faculty, Fellows and Students
Hints of a ‘Shop-’Til-You-Drop’ Presidency. Walter Shapiro, spring 2005 fellow, writes that Trump delivered the “first major deficits-don’t-matter speech in modern GOP history.”
Presidents vs. the press: What came before Trump’s ‘running war’ with the media. Thomas Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press, says that Trump’s ability to attack the press “dates back to the ‘60s, when the right began to accuse the press of a liberal bias.”
How Americans see President Trump, according to three regional newspapers. Judy Woodruff, fall 2005 fellow, asked newspaper editors from Colorado, Wisconsin and Missouri to share what they are hearing from readers in their communities.
Trump’s troubling relationship with the press. Marvin Kalb, former Shorenstein Center director, asks if the media, “in its daily tussle with an impatient, powerful president has the spunk, the stuff, and the public support, to stand up and say, this far but no further.”
The GOP’s Long History With Black Colleges. Leah Wright Rigueur, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at HKS, and Theodore R. Johnson of Georgetown University, write that although “the relationship between black colleges and Republican presidents has been mutually beneficial by some measures…These narrow successes don’t obviate the need for the wide array of policies that are needed to reduce racial disparities in almost every facet of American society.”
Cost of the Cadillac: The Obamacare story reporters are missing. Trudy Lieberman, spring 2001 fellow, writes that “In the deluge of recent media stories about who will lose if Congress repeals the Affordable Care Act, one crucial provision has received short shrift from journalists: the so-called Cadillac tax, written into the law as a way to raise money for government subsidies for the uninsured.”
U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Are Not Coming Back. HKS student Haiyang Zhang writes in the Kennedy School Review that with advances in automation, manufacturing jobs are not being outsourced to other countries – these jobs just don’t exist anymore.
President Trump’s Address to Congress
- Media Figures Tout Trump’s ‘Presidential’ Shift, But His Divisive Policies Remain The Same, from The Huffington Post.
- The Worst Performance of Trump’s Presidency Now Belongs to the Press Corps, from New Republic.
- Trump’s Use of Navy SEAL’s Wife Highlights All the Key Ingredients of U.S. War Propaganda, from The Intercept.
Challenges for the News Media
- Media Coverage of Trump Government’s Flaws Might be Backfiring, from
- How to cover a hostile president, from Columbia Journalism Review.
- A new study says young Americans have a broad definition of news, from Nieman Lab.
Leaks and Privacy
- Trump’s tough talk on leaks is one thing. His actions tell another tale. From The Washington Post.
- Sean Spicer targets own staff in leak crackdown, from
- How The Media Are Using Encryption Tools To Collect Anonymous Tips, from NPR.
- 3 (free) things that journalists can do right now to protect their data and their sources at the border, from Nieman Lab.
Right Wing Media—Tech and Business
- What Can Data Tell Us About Breitbart? From MediaShift.
- Another 100 companies pull advertising from Breitbart, from the
- This Is How Your Hyperpartisan Political News Gets Made, from BuzzFeed News.
- How YouTube Serves As The Content Engine Of The Internet’s Dark Side, from BuzzFeed News.
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