CNN’s Tokyo Chief Blogs from Harvard
Here is part of what Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN’s Tokyo Bureau Chief and correspondent, writes about in her new weblog:
As an American journalist working in Asia for the past 12 years, I have experienced first-hand how the internet can thwart efforts by authoritarian governments to stifle free speech. I have seen how the internet and web-based technologies have helped to strengthen democratic processes in newly democratic countries. Now I plan to use my semester away from the daily grind of news deadlines to explore how the internet can help American journalists serve our own democracy better.
We must be honest with ourselves about our journalistic shortcomings – and about the fact that our shortcomings have real policy consequences.
She adds:
…So my leave-of-absence as a media fellow at the Shorenstein Center is an invaluable opportunity for me to explore new technologies, formats, and approaches to journalism through an interactive, on-line research project.
Her comments are worth a full read, scroll down to the bottom of her weblog posts to read more of this introduction.
