Sustaining journalism: A status report

Sustaining journalism: A status report

RESOURCE: Geneva Overholser’s Manifesto for Change

Here are excerpts and notes from the Saturday, May 3, 2008, keynote panel on the final day of NewsTools2008 at Yahoo and the Domain Hotel in Sunnyvale, Calif. Introduced by Northern California Society of Professional Journalists President Linda Jue, the panel departed from the “open-space” format of the three previous days to provide briefly some expert perspective on journalism’s future. Approximately 160 people — journalists, technologists, entrepreneurs and citizens — attended the Saturday activities.

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Panelists (in speaking order)

  • MODERATOR: CYNTHIA GORNEY is a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism, U.C. Berkeley, a magazine writer (with regular contributions to National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Oprah, Runners World and Harpers, among others), an occasional radio host of KQED-FM’s Forum, and the author of “Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars.”
  • GENEVA OVERHOLSER is the newly appointed director of the School of Journalism at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications. She previously held the Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting for the Missouri School of Journalism, in its Washington, D.C., bureau. She is a frequent print, broadcast and online media critic, and the author of “On Behalf of Journalism: A Manifesto for Change.”
  • DAVID TALBOT, the founder and former editor-in-chief of Salon.com, is also the author of New York Times bestseller “Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years.” He recently launched a media and entertainment company called The Talbot Players with his brother Steve, executive producer of PBS’ Frontline World. He is also helping develop the San Francisco Free Press, a nonprofit Bay Area news engine that aims to combine the best of professional and citizens’ journalism.
  • PERSEPHONE MIEL is a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at The Harvard Law School where she directs the Media Re:public project, examining the impact of participatory journalism on the information environment. Prior to joining Berkman, she spent more than 12 years with Internews Network, an international NGO supporting independent media around the world.
  • ROSE AGUILAR hosts the daily public affairs show Your Call on KALW-FM. Her forthcoming book, “Red Highways,” will be out in September. The book collects political interviews with people living and voting in so-called “red states,” and calls for a more thoughtful and productive dialogue in the media and between people with differing views. She will speak about what the public wants from journalism, and what it gets.