Journalism and Democracy: Rebuilding Media for our Communities
Presenters
- Dan Gillmor
Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship
Dan Gillmor is director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Center, funded by the Knight Foundation and Kauffman Foundation, is working to help create a culture of innovation and risk-taking in journalism education, and in the wider media world.
Gillmor’s new book, Mediactive, aims to help turn passive media consumers into active users. He also writes articles, including occasional pieces for Salon and more frequently for the Mediactive blog. Gillmor’s last book, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People (2004 and 2006, O’Reilly Media) has been translated into many foreign languages, most recently Korean and Arabic.
- Robert W. McChesney
Media scholar
Robert W. McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 2002, he co-founded Free Press, and he served as its president until April 2008. McChesney also hosts the Media Matters weekly radio program on NPR-affiliate WILL-AM. McChesney has written or edited 18 books. His most recent book, written with John Nichols, is the award-winning The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again (Nation Books, 2010).
In 2008, the Utne Reader listed McChesney among their "50 visionaries who are changing the world." In 2001, Adbusters Magazine named him one of the "Nine Pioneers of Mental Environmentalism." In 2006, right-winger David Horowitz included McChesney on his list of the "101 most dangerous professors in America." In 2010, McChesney received the Dallas Smythe Award for his contributions to the study and practice of democratic communication. Along with John Nichols, McChesney was awarded the U.S. Newspaper GuildÕs 2010 Herbert Block Freedom Award.
Prior to entering graduate school in 1983, McChesney was a sports stringer for UPI, published a weekly newspaper, and in 1979 was the founding publisher of The Rocket, a Seattle-based rock magazine. At the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in McChesney's hometown of Cleveland, the founding of The Rocket is credited as the birth of the Seattle rock scene of the late 1980s and 1990s. In his spare time, McChesney writes about professional basketball for a number of websites.
- John Nichols
The Nation, Capital Times
John Nichols is The Nation’s Washington correspondent and the editorial page editor of the Capital Times in Madison, Wis. He is the author of The ‘S’ Word: A Short History of an American Tradition … Socialism; The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders’ Cure for Royalism; Against the Beast: A Documentary History of American Opposition to Empire; Jews for Buchanan and Dick: The Man Who Is President and co-author, with Robert McChesney, of It’s the Media, Stupid; Our Media, Not Theirs: The Democratic Struggle Against Corporate Media; Tragedy & Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections and Destroy Democracy; and, most recently, The Death and Life of American Journalism.
- Aarti Shahani
Writer
Aarti Shahani is a writer and freelance journalist who has contributed to The Washington Post, Salon.com, New America Media, Alternet, and ColorLines. She is an advisory board member of the Banyan Project. She is also a writing fellow with Justice Strategies, a non-partisan think tank focused on the criminal justice system.
Shahani has been a community organizer, non-profit founder and director, strategic consultant, and adjunct faculty member at the Gallatin School of New York University, where she taught a course on immigration and organizing. Her work as a practitioner has been recognized by institutions including the Revson Foundation at Columbia University, the Union Square Awards Foundation, the Academy for Educational Development, and the Legal Aid Society of New York. As a Paul & Daisy Soros New American Fellow, she is a candidate for a masters degree in public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Shahani was born in Casablanca to Indian parents and grew up in Flushing, Queens.
- Tom Stites
Editor and entrepreneur, the Banyan Project
Tom Stites is an editor and entrepreneur whose passion for strengthening journalism and democracy spurred him to found the Banyan Project, which is pioneering the reader-owned co-op as a business model for Web journalism that can thrive in the digital future. He is also a fellow of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
Banyan's mission is to strengthen democracy through journalism that's tailored to help less-than-affluent everyday citizens, who are ill-served by legacy media, to make sound decisions and to activate their civic energy.
As an editor, Tom has supervised reporting that has won an array of major journalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. As an entrepreneur, he has founded two print magazines and three online publications. His original voice as a writer and speaker on journalism has won a respected following.
Journalism positions Tom has held include national correspondent, national editor and associate managing editor for project reporting at the Chicago Tribune; night national editor of the New York Times, and managing editor of The Kansas City Times. Most recently, he served for a decade as the editor and publisher of UU World, the national magazine of the Unitarian Universalist religious denomination, then as a consulting editor for the Center for Public Integrity.
Tom grew up in Kansas City and attended Williams College. He has taught in the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and in 2006 was a fellow at Harvard Divinity School.
- Laura S. Washington
Journalist
Laura S. Washington brings more than two decades of experience as a nonprofit professional and multimedia journalist who specializes in African-American affairs, local and national politics, race and racism, and social justice.
She is currently a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, contributing editor for In These Times and political analyst at ABC 7, Chicago’s network affiliate. From 2003 to 2009, she served as the Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor at DePaul University. She is also the former editor and publisher of The Chicago Reporter, a nationally recognized investigative monthly specializing in racial issues and urban affairs. She served as deputy press secretary to Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor. Washington received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and she is a founding inductee to the Medill School of Journalism Hall of Achievement.
Washington has received more than two dozen awards, including two Emmys, the Peter Lisagor Award for outstanding journalism and the Studs Terkel Award for Community Journalism. Newsweek Magazine named Washington one of the nation’s “100 People to Watch” in the 21st century. Newsweek said: “her style of investigative journalism has made (The Chicago Reporter) a powerful and award-winning voice.”
Her reporting, analysis and commentary have been widely featured in the national media, including Time and Newsweek magazines, the New York Times, National Public Radio, PBS and the BBC.
Video
Audio
- When
- Saturday, April 9, 9:00am - 10:30am
- Where
- Cityview Ballroom
map (pdf) - Track
- Journalism and Public Media
Democracy depends on an informed citizenry. But in the last 10 years journalism in America has struggled in term of profits, public trust, and adapting to the digital age. The state of journalism is in a dramatic state of flux. As traditional media struggles to survive, innovators and entrepreneurs are launching exciting new journalism projects around the country. But too often questions about the future of journalism focus on what business model will pay the bills or what new technologies will save journalism. This session will ask a different question: What does democracy demand of journalism? If we really take the idea of journalism and democracy seriously, what are our responsibilities as citizens? What must we demand of our leaders and our media? This session will take a fresh look at how we can fight for better media that puts public service first and enriches democracy for all people.
