“There is a profound crisis taking place in American journalism.” That is the introductory line to the case study being published today by the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy. My coauthor, María Vázquez, and I hope that this case, which focuses on the real life trials and tribulations of a four year old community news web site in a suburb of Los Angeles, will add to the admittedly parse academic literature on what some people call “hyper-local news”. Existing news magazines and newspapers face serious threats to their continued profitability and viability. The future outlook for local……
Tag: journalism
NPR chief Vivian Schiller: Don’t take the work of news gatherers for granted
At this time of tremendous upheaval in American news media, its leaders should not focus on transformation at the expense of fortifying and expanding concrete, on-the-ground reporting. That was the message offered Thursday by NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller as she delivered the James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting at USC Annenberg. "For well over a decade, at gatherings like this, news people have obsessed about transformational technologies, vanishing business models and new paradigms of mass communication," Schiller told an audience of students, faculty members and leaders of influential Los Angeles-area media who gathered at USC Town……
Public radio is enjoying boom times
Dean Ernest J. Wilson III of USC Annenberg and the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy are preparing for the annual James L. Loper Lecture in Public Broadcasting on November 18, 2010. This year's speaker is NPR president and CEO, Vivian Schiller. Public radio, despite the failings of most media outlets in the US, is experiencing an increase in listeners and in funding. Below is an article published in The Los Angeles Times by James Rainey exploring the growth that is occurring in public radio. ——————————————————————————————————————————————- Larry Mantle, right, host of KPCC's popular "AirTalk" program. (Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times……
Cowan in NPR J-School piece
NPR profiled CCLP Director Geoffrey Cowan's journalism class at USC Annenberg for their piece "What's the point of Journalism School, Anyway?" Students from Cowan's class explained why they are journalism students and the commented on the changing landscape of the field…….
Westphal & Cowan’s report mentioned in USPS service raise
Senior Fellow David Westphal and CCLP Director Geoffrey Cowan from their report "Public Policy and Funding the News," point out the impact postal subsidies–and their decline–have had on American journalism. The proposal to raise prices from the USPS could result in more devastating blow to already struggling newspaper industry. The full article can be read on In These Times…….
Senior Fellow Cinny Kennard Sworn in as Special Consultant for the FCC
The Federal Communications Commission recently appointed Senior Fellow Cinny Kennard as a Special Consultant to work on the team researching and preparing a report on the Future of Media & Information Needs of Communities in a Digital Age. According to the FCC, "the goal of the project is to help ensure that all Americans have access to vibrant, diverse sources of news and information that will enable them to enrich their families, communities and democracy." As traditional forms of news struggle to survive and new forms of media flourish, the research team will acquire extensive knowledge of the media world……
‘Top Secret’ play and discussion series wraps in New York City
Produced by LA Theatre Works in partnership with New York Theatre Workshop and Affinity Collaborative Theatre, Leory Aarons and Geoffrey Cowan's Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, closed with rave reviews and an impressive model for using theater to explore and discuss the role of media in a democracy. The USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy organized conversations focused on the tension between issues of national security and a free press that included journalists, scholars, jurists, and public policy leaders from partner organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Columbia Journalism Review, New York University, and others…….
Boot Camp for Journalism Entrepreneurs
Last week, I was an instructor at the News Entrepreneur Boot Camp 2010 at USC. Sponsored by the Knight Digital Media Center, USC Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, theAnnenberg Center for Communication Leadership and Public Policy(CCLP), and the Online Journalism Review, the camp brought together about 20 aspiring entrepreneurs, almost all former journalists, who are trying to create new news/information enterprises in the digital world. If you'd like to watch a video of my session, click here [from the Knight Digital Media Center], or take a look at my power point slides [below]…….
McClatchy Newspapers publishes award-winning series on human trafficking
In April of this year, The Kansas City Star was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for their groundbreaking series, "A New Slavery." The series, written by reporters Laura Bauer, Mike McGraw, and Mark Morris investigates the US' weak enforcement of human trafficking. The multi-piece series contains interviews with victims of trafficking, government officials, and other who have been affected by the crime and enforcing the laws to end it. The Kansas City Star is a subsidiary of The McClatchy Company. Congratulations to the writers of The Kansas City Star as well as Gary Pruitt, Center on Communication Leadership……
Should Government Support Journalism? It Always Has
Everyone knows from American history class that the First Amendment is the great protector of press freedom in the United States, barring Congress from "abridging" the sacred right to publish what you want to publish. So does that means there's a constitutional wall that separates government and the press, just as it separates church and state? Not exactly. Contrary to popular perception, the Constitution has not prevented the government from being a supporter of the press, and in fact it has been a generous benefactor since the founding of the country. In a report issued at USC's Annenberg School for……