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Post-conference Reflections on Re-imagining News & Community in the Northwest

Submitted by PeggyHolman on Sun, 01/17/2010 - 4:46pm

If you attended all or part of Re-imagining News & Community in the Pacific Northwest  from January 7-10, 2010, we invite your feedback in the comments of this post.  Here are some questions to consider:

1. What's your key takeaway from the conference for U.S. journalism?

2. What do you believe can happen, what will change, as a result of the conference?

3. What will you be doing?

4.  What else would you like to say about your conference experience?

Thanks again for joining us for Re-imagining News and Community in the Pacific Northwest.

The JTM-PNW Organizers

Sanjay Bhatt, Michael C. Bradbury, Deb Brandt, Bill Densmore, Mike Fancher, John Hamer, Sheri Herndon, Peggy Holman, Jonathan Lawson, Dave Messerschmidt, Cate Montana, Stephen Silha, Anne Stadler

Greetings to the Forum

Submitted by blue tarp on Tue, 01/12/2010 - 1:03pm
in

Hello.


The reason that i signed up for this site is to communicate with others with the intention of advancing ideas while keeping both the drones and the choir at bay. For example, I hear what sounds like an airplane outside my office window; it could be an airplane, or it could be a drone. It's gone now. Forget it. Likewise, I asked a preacher one time if he ever Really felt like he was "preaching to the choir". It was an odd, but interesting moment, as we looked at each other, maybe thinking about how "Litmus test liberals" and "Fundamentalist reactionaries" are pretty much the same.


At least that's what I was thinking about at the time. The thing that I didn't like about listening to them was that it wasn't original music, and much too didactic.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


So how's this for a contrarian question for a start:


Who, or What, Defines the "News Cycle"?


 

Mike Fancher's picture

What questions do you have?

Submitted by Mike Fancher on Sat, 01/09/2010 - 11:44am

The first full day of JTM/PNW was possibility day -- a series of conversations about questions. Here are some of the topics:

jamesian's picture

mind stretched open - eyes wide

Submitted by jamesian on Fri, 01/08/2010 - 6:56pm

I was the host of a session that I did not want to host.

(cue music from Twilight Zone) because someone came up to me and asked, "Will you host a session>"

First surprise.

His name is Lion, and he has a scientist's education but a philosopher's questions. Why do people fracture into pro and anti-science?

Because of his leadership, we had about seven people who could not stop talking. My role as facilitator was easy.. they talked and talked and talked.

Thanks to the JTM group for bringing this new process in and helping us accept that the right people are there at the right time.

I learned something new.

Second surprise.

Mike Fancher's picture

Look Who's Coming to Journalism That Matters/Pacific Northwest

Submitted by Mike Fancher on Thu, 01/07/2010 - 11:41am
in

More than 200 people are registered to attend Journalism That Matters/Pacific Northwest, which opens today at the University of Washington.

For fun, I arbitrarily categorized how the participants described themselves in biographies they posted on the JTM site. Nobody fits neatly in any one category, so I picked the description that seemed most central to the person's work.

Here is a breakdown:

  1. Civic activists / Community representatives 42
  2. Educators 23
  3. Online journalists 21
  4. Students 14
  5. Newspaper 12
  6. Radio 11
  7. Television 10
  8. Technologists 9
  9. Organization representatives 8
  10. Filmmakers 7
  11. Targeted publications 7
  12. Entrepreneurs 6
  13. Freelancers 6
  14. Public and Media Relations 6
  15. Business representatives 5
  16. Photographers/visual 5
  17. Media Reformers 4

I'm delighted that the largest category is made up of people who don't produce journalism themselves but who care about it enough to attend this gathering. After all, the convening questions for JTM/PNW include:

Mike Fancher's picture

The Right Conversation

Submitted by Mike Fancher on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 10:14am
in

Journalism That Matters/Pacific Northwest is the right conversation, in the right place, at the right time, with the right people.

I say that because of work I've done in the past year with the Aspen Institute and the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. The Commission identified three key objectives:

  1. Maximize the availability of relevant credible information to all Americans and their communities.
  2. Strengthen the capacity of individuals to engage with information.
  3. Promote individual engagement with information and the public life of the community.

It identified these central points that resonate with JTM/PNW:

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