Conference Aug. 9 : A Journalism Wake Up Call
Each time I have publicly spoken about our Journalism and the Public: Restoring the Trust project and its August 9 conference in San Antonio, I have always wondered that if by just talking about trust issues are we simply fine tuning the fiddle while Rome is burning.
Now after reading Philip Meyer’s book The Vanishing Newspaper:Saving Journalism in the Information Age, and Jay Rosen’s recent posts about the possible end of journalism as we know it, I think I am going to position the conference this way:
The Wake Up Call
Can Greater Trust and Improved Quality Save the News Media?
Some of the questions we will tackle include:
1. Are newspapers and the news media in a death spiral?
2. Can improving quality and trust save them?
3. Will the saving grace be a nonprofit model as with the Center for Public Integrity or public radio?
4. Is the key in developing trust and improving quality to partner with the community, citizen and niche players? Or will that have the opposite effect?
Last year’s Toronto conference on Exploring the Fusion Power of Public and Participatory Journalism was at the right time, and I believe this Wake Up Call on trust, quality and survival is even more timely.
Next week we will be launching the full Journalism and the Public: Restoring the Trust web and conference site. Please watch for it and join us on Aug. 9, 2005 in San Antonio.
