Eric: I was impacted by the stories of pain and suffering in the journalism profession, brought on by profits as the bottom line and humans and their environment as a sidebar. Challenge: How to work with what’s obviously a transition in the industry.
Nora: This time together has been an eye-opener. I’ve always enjoyed working with journalists in the trenches, and was wary of the “suits” like Jim and Chris. They broke my stereotypes.
Scott: I can’t stop thinking about the historic precedents. What must it have been like when the printing press was invented, and those few people who could read and write contemplated a future when everyone could? As an early step, how can we figure out how to bring Poynter into this process?
Karen: When I think about journalism it’s not just daily reporting and news media stereotypes, it’s all aspects of storytelling in all media, film, etc. It’s easy to point to journalism, but we need shifts across all the stories that we tell ourselves.
Chris: I really liked Mr. Fetzers ideas about reality being both dark and light. I’m intrigued with the separation of journalism from the business model. My question is how can Journalism That Matters happen with journalists who are citizens without being tethered to the corporation? Can we overleap the existing model? I also question whether we’re too high minded and serious. There’s an aspect of journalism that’s more blue-collar—sports, weather, obits, crossword puzzles, classified. We need more fun, readability. Thinking of how people receive stories.
Peggy: Interested in the inner life of journalist. The idea of new beats… mentoring citizen journalists. If questions were asked from another angle, as a practice, the whole thing can be transformed without much cost or other change. It’s a simple experiment that could catch fire.
Linda: Journalists are especially engaged in transmitting meaning. I was struck with the woundedness in the profession, which is shared across other professions. It seems that “formation work” in this profession could be bundled with more outcomes.
Jim: Struck with my own passion around the future of our business. This experience has opened up possibilities for what I do now. I would like to help make a bridge between teaching leadership and more functional visioning within the media profession. I don’t want journalism to collapse completely; it would be bad for the world to go back to the Middle Ages.
Stephen: For the past two years, my burning question has been “What is it to be a citizen at this time?” Media has not been very helpful. The blogosphere is throwing a better party. I have a sense of hope that in this work we can remake the “fourth estate” and its role for empowering citizens.