About Journalism That Matters

JOURNALISM THAT MATTERS hosts conversations about the emerging news ecology among the diverse ecosystem of journalism – reporters, editors, publishers, videographers, photographers, media educators, reformers, volunteer journalists, and audience; from print, broadcast, and online media, both mainstream and entrepreneurial.  

It is a community of media innovators and stakeholders that blazes paths and builds bridges to a new news ecology. We convene, connect, and inspire the diverse, engaged citizens who are molding and leading the media of tomorrow.

Founders of Journalism that Matters

Testimonials

The New News Ecology

There is a new story of journalism being born even as the old story is dying.  At its heart, that new story stays true – and enlarges on – a purpose that many journalists hold dear: “to provide people with the information they need to be free and self-governing" (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2001).   Like its predecessor, the new story has a mythic quality regarding the role journalism plays in navigating a changing world, bringing people a cultural narrative that prepares them and their communities to prosper. 

The future of journalism centers around the power of storytelling to create healthy communities. Specifically:

Cultivating “healthy journalists”, renewing the inner life of the journalist;

Preparing the next generation, with an eye towards the emerging citizen journalist; and

Inventing a new economic model. As one participant put it, “Rather than further compromise the work, it’s time to separate journalism from its current funding sources and find a new model.”

Some of its seeds include:

· Journalism as a conversation – a groundbreaking shift from journalism as a lecture;

· Shaping a new “cultural narrative”— Recovering the mythic story of journalists as conveners and navigators through a changing world prepares them to support communities in shaping a new national “master narrative” for our times.

· High tech/high touch journalism – Whether on the web or in the café, new storytelling forms are emerging that engage us on cell phones and iPods, and in gathering places with food, music and the arts; and

· Ready, Fire, Aim – A strategy of “just do it,” moving from idea (ready) to implementation (fire) and then watching the results and adjusting (aim).   This formula creates rapid experimentation and learning and avoids analysis paralysis.

By metaphorically removing the newsroom walls and taking the journalist out of the cube, the qualities of the new news ecology   — the information exchange among the public, government and institutions that can inform, inspire, engage, and activate — emerge: