Journalists serve two bosses, says Ken Auletta of the New Yorker

February 14, 2006 — At the Shorenstein Center’s brown-bag lunch, Ken Auletta, “Annals of Communication” columnist for the New Yorker, discussed for whom the journalist works. Broadly speaking, Auletta said, the news media serve two groups: the general readership, on the one hand; their corporate owners, on the other. The interests of these two groups

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We the Media: The Rise of Grassroots, Open-Source Journalism, and the Coming Era of the Citizen Activist

February 13, 2006 – “We the Media: The Rise of Grassroots, Open-Source Journalism, and the Coming Era of the Citizen Activist.” A talk with Dan Gillmor, founder and director of the Center for Citizen Media. Part I of Berkman Center’s (Harvard Law School) Citizen Media Series, a series of five talks centering on recent developments in

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Post’s Hiatt looks at journalism in partisan political culture

February 8, 2006 — At the Shorenstein Center’s brown-bag lunch, Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor for the Washington Post, considered the implications of a highly partisan political culture and an increasingly fractured media environment on opinion journalism. As editor of the Post‘s editorial, op-ed and letters section, he said he is intent on presenting a

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Covering Controversial Science: Improving Reporting on Science and Public Policy

A paper by Cristine Russell, spring 2006 fellow, surveys the state of science journalism, and finds that as the pace of new developments in science and technology quickens, journalists are increasingly confronted with covering complicated technical information as well as the potential social, legal, religious, and political consequences of scientific research. More coverage of the

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Hamlet’s Blackberry: Why Paper Is Eternal

A paper by William Powers, fall 2006 fellow, makes the case that although print publications and paper are falling out of favor with the rise of digital technology, paper does still perform some tasks better. There are cognitive, cultural and social dimensions to the human-paper dynamic that come into play every time any kind of

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Journalism, Value Creation and the Future of News Organizations

A paper by Robert G. Picard, spring 2006 fellow, considers why news organizations have difficulty creating value. Picard argues that journalism and the news must improve value creation for five central stakeholders: consumers, advertisers, investors, journalists, and society. This paper examines why and how these organizations are delivering low value, shows why new value creation

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Covering Crime in Washington, D.C.

A paper by Kimberly Gross, spring 2006 fellow, examines the nature of local television news coverage of crime and its effects on emotional response. Gross presents the results of a content analysis of two months of local television news coverage of crime from a network affiliate in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Consistent with what

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Soft Power and Hard Views: How American Commentators are Spreading over the World’s Opinion Pages

A paper by Julia Baird, spring 2005 fellow, examines the export of American thought by documenting the presence of American columnists on newspaper opinion pages around the world in the 2000s. Baird assesses what impact, if any, 9/11 and the war in Iraq had on the demand for American opinion by editors who act as

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The Role of Georgia’s Media — and Western Aid — in the Rose Revolution

A paper by David Anable, fall 2005 fellow, examines the role of the Georgian media in the country’s Rose Revolution and the impact that Western media development aid played in enabling this to occur. It also looks at what has happened to the country’s media since the revolution, at the U.S. policies underlying the aid

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News Consumption and the New Electronic Media

A paper by Douglas Ahlers, spring 2005 fellow, looks at the hypothesized shift of news consumption from the traditional media to the online news media. Ahlers argues that the hypothesized mass migration of news consumption behavior is not supported by the facts. Two-thirds of the U.S. adult population had not shifted to online news consumption

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Former L.A. Times editor to serve as first Knight Visiting Lecturer

December 15, 2005 — The Shorenstein Center is delighted to announce that we will host the first Knight Visiting Lecturer, a position for distinguished journalists who will study, analyze and comment on the future of journalism in America and around the world. John S. Carroll, former editor of The Los Angeles Times, is the first

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Press, Politics and Public Policy: The Domestic and International View

December 12, 2005 – “Press, Politics and Public Policy: The Domestic and International View.” Symposium with Shorenstein Fellows: David Anable, Christian Science Monitor; Diane Francis, National Post; Sunshine Hillygus, Harvard University; Zhengrong Hu, Communication University of China; and Kevin Ryan, Brigadier General (Ret.).

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Woodward, Bernstein: Anonymous sources vital to getting information

December 5, 2005 — Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who as young reporters broke the Watergate scandal wide open, came together again for a Kennedy School Forum discussion on anonymous sources and journalistic integrity. Described by moderator Alex Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center, as “the most celebrated and admired reporting team in history,” both

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