Philanthropy Journal highlighted a column by Senior Fellow David Westphal on the role of philanthropy in producing quality journalism. For-profit newspapers and nonprofit foundations are not opposed to joining forces to promote innovative reporting, Westphal wrote in his column, which appeared in the Online Journalism Review…….
Month: January 2009
Inauguration Watch
USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy and the USC Unruh Institute of Politics, invite students, faculty and friends to watch the Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Following the ceremony, there will be a discussion on the inaugural speech and the future of Obama’s presidency. Guests TBA. Refreshments will be served. 8:00 a.m. USC Ground Zero Coffee House, 615 Childs Way. Postscript: For information and pictures from this event and others, visit the CCLP Collection on Flickr …….
Free press, with profits
The Los Angeles Times ran an op-ed by Geneva Overholser and CCLP Director Geoffrey Cowan about the important role government plays in sustaining serious journalism. "It's clear that journalism is in crisis, and in the current recession, things are likely to get much worse," they wrote. "With a new administration and a new Congress seeking fresh solutions to other crises, we need to consider new possibilities to help ensure that journalism remains able to provide the information needed by a great democracy."……
Lofty expectations for Obama’s inaugural speech
The San Francisco Chronicle quoted Faculty Fellow Thomas Hollihan and Morley Winograd of the USC Marshall School about Barack Obama's inauguration address. "An inaugural speech is very different from the annual State of the Union address," Hollihan said. "By its very nature, it's a speech that celebrates the continuity of the compact between people and the democratic process." The article also included a list of tips from Hollihan on what to expect from the speech…….
Kennedy and Obama
The New York Times ran an op-ed by Senior Fellow Richard Reeves about President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address. "The speech was bellicose and conciliatory at the same," Reeves wrote. "Kennedy was a man who knew that in his new job, words were often more important than deeds," Reeves added. "Few people would remember whether he balanced the budget. Almost all Americans would remember his lines, particularly, 'Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.'"……
From a press scholar, a rousing vote for the journalist
New media thinker Jay Rosen has been using the work of press scholar Daniel C. Hallin to explain how the Internet has eroded journalists' traditional power to define what issues are legitimate for proper debate. Hallin wrote that journalists tend to place public issues into three categories: a sphere of consensus, a sphere of legitimate controversy and a sphere of deviance. In a post on his blog, Press Think, Rosen argued that the press has done a lousy, unthinking job of deciding what goes into each category, and that through the Internet American citizens might assume this role for themselves…….