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Archive for the ‘Representative Journalism’ Category

Isn’t It Nice When Folks at Harvard Praise Your Idea?

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

The Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University takes a look at our Locally Grown project in Northfield, Minnesota and likes what it sees. Here is a snippet of what Mathew Ingram writes:

This is a fascinating effort, I think. Since the idea is that these local news operations will be “crowdsourced” or community-financed, in many ways [...]

Harnisch Foundation Gives $250,000 to Advance Rep J

Thursday, December 18th, 2008

I am very pleased to announce that this morning the Harnisch Foundation provided a $250,000 gift to Kennesaw State University to help advance my Representative Journalism concept.
Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch awarded the check in New York this morning. The university will be putting out a formal press release, but I don’t want to get [...]

Carleton Students Interview Our Representative Journalist

Monday, December 15th, 2008

Doug McGill’s journalism class at Carleton College produced a video about our Representative Journalism project at the Locally Grown blog in Northfield, Minnesota. Rep J reporter Bonnie Obremski and Locally Grown blogger Griff Wigley are highlighted.
McGill’s students have been posting an impressive series of local journalism stories and posting them at Locally Grown. Their [...]

Witt Explains Representative Journalism to PBS’s CEO

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Paula Kerger, President and CEO of PBS, said she sees the possibility of PBS and National Public Radio (NPR) sharing resources to produce news programming for PBS. Leonard Witt, who conducted the video interview, tells Kerger of his Representative Journalism idea, which he thinks could turn PBS into a news powerhouse.

WGBH Does Story, Analysis on Spot.us., Rep J Models

Monday, November 24th, 2008

The Representative Journalism and Spot.us crowdfunding models got the talking-head treatment at WGBH in Boston. It is interesting to be on the receiving end of one of these of discussions. In the end, I would say it was fair and balanced even though the moderator, who worried about the biases in crowdfunding, showed her [...]

PBS’s MediaShift Gives Nod to Representative Journalism

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Our Representative Journalism project is part of a larger story by Mark Glaser at PBS’s MediaShift. We get top billing with David Cohn’s Spot.Us. It’s an article you will want to read.
Here are my full responses to Glaser’s email inquiries:
I know you have received foundation funding to get RepJ off the ground. Do you see [...]

Representative Journalism Becomes More Appealing

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

When I first came up with my idea of Representative Journalism, which basically says if people want high quality information they should be willing to pay for it, lots of people said that would never happen. I argued that the day was coming that if they did not pay there would be no decent journalism. [...]

Environmental Journalists Meet Representative Journalism

Friday, October 17th, 2008

I am at the Society of Environmental Journalists 18th Annual Conference in Roanoke to spread the Representative Journalism gospel. Amy Gahran extended the invite and I will be on two panels and one dinner table discussion. The topic headings include:

Emerging Career Options: Digital Media and Your Future
Whither Journalism: Emerging Directions
Not-So-Idle Chatter: How Blogging and [...]

How Representative Journalism Works in Northfield, MN

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

I am about to make a my presentation at the Convergence and Society: The Participatory Web about Representative Journalism and how it works at Locally Grown in Northfield, MN. Here is a YouTube rendition of the talk, but it is not great on the YouTube.com.

Rep J to Help Main Street Understand Fiscal Crisis

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Our Representative Journalism project in Northfield, Minnesota is taking on a big challenge that has always faced news organizations. How can a big international story like the International Economic Meltdown be translated to hyperlocal reporting? We are giving it a try. First some background.
I am the person behind the Representative Journalism project that is taking [...]

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About RJ

  • Your host

    Leonard Witt

    Leonard Witt is the Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication at Kennesaw State University and the chief blogger at PJNet.org.

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  • Advisory Board

  • What I'm thinking about

  • A Definition

    Representative Journalism, a term coined by Leonard Witt, aims to build sustainable journalism one small group at a time.

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  • Your Role

    Leonard Witt has been developing the Representative Journalism idea behind the scenes for several months. Now he is going public. You can help develop the concept into a workable model or models for mainstream media, small operations, start-ups or individual endeavors.

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