Garrett ‘feels weight’ of feud between Fox and White House

October 13, 2009 — At the Shorenstein Center’s brown-bag lunch, Major Garrett, senior White House correspondent for Fox News, discussed covering a historic campaign and presidency, and the “public feud” between the White House communications office and his network. The feud concerns a statement from White House communications director Anita Dunn about Fox News. Garrett […]

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Israel and Palestine: Making Connections Across a Deep Historical Divide

October 6, 2009 – Discussion with Ibrahim Barzaq, correspondent, The Associated Press and Nieman Fellow and Gabriella Blum, Assistant Professor of Law, Harvard Law School. Co-sponsored by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the Nieman Foundation and the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

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Zuckerman’s Media Cloud focused on thorough media analysis

October 6, 2009 — In his Shorenstein Center brown-bag talk, “Media Cloud and Quantitative Analysis,” Ethan Zuckerman, senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and co-founder of Media Cloud, explained how his new project attempts to track news coverage over time. Media analysis in its current state is “really easy to do

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Can Nonprofits Save Journalism? Legal Constraints and Opportunities

A paper by Marion R. Fremont‐Smith, Shorenstein Center faculty affiliate, examines whether nonprofit, tax‐exempt status might be a feasible option for some newspapers experiencing financial difficulties. Legal precedents, including IRS rulings, dating to the 1960s have held that this was not possible. This paper argues that the economic situation of the newspaper industry warrants reconsideration

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Shorenstein Center hosts briefing on health care reform

September 30, 2009 — The Shorenstein Center sponsored a briefing for journalists on health care reform at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The event featured two panels moderated by Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy: The first panel was “News Coverage of Health Reform: Metanarratives

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Leonhardt looks at how to raise long-term economic growth

September 29, 2009 — In his Shorenstein Center brown-bag talk, “How Do We Grow From Here? The American Economy After the Great Recession,” New York Times Economic Scene columnist David Leonhardt stressed the importance of maintaining economic growth in the United States and suggestions for increasing it. It’s the “worst recession in a generation,” Leonhardt said,

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‘Accountability journalism’ is at risk, says Clay Shirky

September 22, 2009 — In his Shorenstein Center brown-bag talk, “Internet Issues Facing Newspapers,” Clay Shirky described the changing news landscape that has put accountability journalism at risk, and he outlined a “journalistic ecosystem” that is needed to preserve essential watchdog role of the press. Shirky, who writes on social and economic effects of Internet

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In the Global Village, Can War Survive?

September 15, 2009 – Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict with Susan Hackley, managing director of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, and James Reynolds, China correspondent for BBC News and Nieman Fellow. Moderator: Donna Hicks, Associate of the Weatherhead Center. Co-sponsored by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, the Nieman Foundation

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Crowley: Afghanistan, health care reform defining Obama presidency

September 15, 2009 — To kick off the fall brown-bag speaker series, the Shorenstein Center welcomed Candy Crowley, CNN‘s senior political correspondent. Introducing Crowley, Shorenstein Center director Alex S. Jones said that she “stands for a kind of journalism that is genuinely endangered but that she fulfills at its highest level.” The title of Crowley’s

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Changes in Media Polling in Recent Presidential Campaigns: Moving from Good to “Average” at CNN

A paper by Michael W. Traugott, spring 2009 fellow, details the problematic rise of the “poll of polls,” an average of other organizations’ recent data rather than new information gathered by the news organization itself. This paper reviews how polling has changed in recent decades, compares CNN’s polling from 2004 to its polling in 2008,

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Beyond News: The Case for Wisdom Journalism

A paper by Mitchell Stephens, spring 2009 fellow, argues that as major news events now appear fast and free on Google, Yahoo or a hundred other websites, “stenographic recording” of news events has lost much of its value. Journalists will have to provide something else of use to readers: “wisdom journalism.” Stephens defines wisdom journalism

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Getting it for Free: When Foundations Provide the News on Health

A paper by Maralee Schwartz, spring 2009 fellow, analyzes the implications of using health news provided by non-profit organizations. Departure of experienced journalists and shrinking budgets for reporting have resulted in a decline in the variety of content newspapers produce – including health care coverage. The launch of The Kaiser Family Foundation’s Kaiser Health News,

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Global influence on local elections is increasing, says Teachout

May 6, 2009 — Zephyr Teachout, visiting assistant professor of law at Duke University, spoke at the Shorenstein Center about the crumbling barriers to the globalization of electioneering. Teachout began her talk, “The Future of ‘Internet Campaigning’: The Globalization of Local Elections,” by looking at the barriers that until recently have limited foreign influence in

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Center presents ‘Future of Science Journalism’ forum at MIT Museum

April 28, 2009 — The Shorenstein Center, together with the Knight Science Fellowship program and MIT, presented “The Future of Science Journalism,” a forum at the third-annual Cambridge Science Festival, held at the MIT Museum. Introductory remarks were given by Dr. Susan Hockfield, president of MIT. Jill Abramson, managing editor of The New York Times,

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GlobalPost aims to ‘redefine global news,’ says Balboni

April 28, 2009 — In a multimedia presentation at the Shorenstein Center, Philip S. Balboni demonstrated how his newest media venture is “transforming the coverage of international news in the digital age.” President and CEO of GlobalPost, Balboni is a “committed optimist” who asserts that we are “living in one of the great historic moments

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What’s needed: Innovation, properly regulated, says Madrick

April 21, 2009 — Jeff Madrick, editor of Challenge magazine and contributor to The New York Review of Books, discussed “Who Caused the Crisis and What We Can Do” at the Center’s brown-bag lunch. The cause of the economic crisis, Madrick summarized, is that “we became prisoners of anti-government ideology” that was “beneficial to the

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