Archive for the 'Free Press Summit' Category
Thursday, May 14th, 2009 by Josh Levy
Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps spoke this morning at Free Press’ Changing Media Summit, and he delivered a rousing reminder of how central the media are to sustaining a democracy, and how hard we need to continue to work to protect it.
After musing that change has come to America and to D.C. (“reform breezes are blowing through the corridors of power all over this city”), Copps said that, beyond politics, so many aspects of our modern lives — the way we live, work, play, and produce media — are in flux as well. That isn’t the most comforting fact, but it gives us an opportunity to change journalism, the Internet, and public media for the better.
To help sort it all out, Copps offered four organizing principles “that should serve as our touchstone as we sift through the myriad ideas out there and try to create a media that is truly of, by and for the American people.” (Read the full text of his remarks for more.)
A quick summary:
Principle Number One: Democracy
“Paraphrase James Carville if you like: It’s the democracy, stupid. A democracy runs on information. Information is how we make intelligent decisions about our future and how we hold the powerful accountable. Deprive citizens of relevant, accurate, and timely information and you deprive them of their ability to govern themselves.”
Principle Number Two: Old media are not dead
“Judging by some of the stories out there, you’d think that just about everyone sits down at night to watch their favorite shows on Hulu and that TV news and local newspapers have gone the way of the buggy-whip. The fact is that most consumers still get their news and information from their local newspapers and broadcast stations. The Internet, for all its many glories, doesn’t yet fully compete with them in such areas as investigative journalism or in-depth local reporting, and may not anytime soon.”
Principle Number Three: Make sure the sins visited upon old media don’t deny the promise of new media
“You know me as someone who has supported and pushed the cause of Internet Freedom, Internet Openness, Net Neutrality, whatever you want to call it, for a long, long time. While the tide runs we need to assure this, and, for openers, I will be working for a Fifth Principle of Non-discrimination to be one of the first fruits of our reconstituted FCC.
Principle Number Four: Remember what got us here
“A lot of organizing. Grass-roots work everywhere. Town hall meetings, media reform conferences, teach-ins, marches. Don’t anyone think: ‘We won, it’s over, now let’s just go harvest the fruit.’ Change has come to Washington, but Washington has not been conquered.”
Stay tuned for more dispatches from the front.
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Thursday, May 14th, 2009 by Josh Levy
Good morning! Our Changing Media event is starting in just minutes. We’ve been working hard, staying up late, eating pizza (and frozen, days-old Indian food) and stuffing envelope after envelope to pull off this big event.
Nearly 600 people have RSVP’d, which means that a whole flock of media reformers, media makers and media industry types are en route to the beautiful Newseum in Washington.
This morning, we’ll be treated to a diverse group of speakers who’ll be touching on the three pillars of Free Press’ strategy to create better media.
Those pillars are explained in depth in our newly-released book, titled Changing Media: Public Media Interest Policies for the Digital Age. Download the book and see what you think.
We’re also livestreaming the entire event, and you can follow our Twitter feed and join in the conversation by searching for the hashtag #fpdc.
In the afternoon the attendees will engage in roundtable sessions to debate and discuss the best methods for changing media in the coming years. It’ll be exciting and important.
This is a unique event. It’s the first time such a wide range of speakers and proposals have been brought together under one roof. And with your help, we can really change the media.
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 by Josh Stearns
This week, Free Press released Saving the News: Toward a National Journalism Strategy, a comprehensive new examination of the journalism crisis from a public policy perspective.
Free Press’ new report provides an in-depth analysis of current and emerging models for journalism and public policies to support these new models. As the first study of its kind, Saving the News outlines the clear and immediate need for a national journalism strategy. (Download the full report.)
The debate over the future of news in America has raged in editorial pages and conference rooms, on blogs and on Twitter. These have been important and fruitful conversations. But all too often, lost in these discussions about new business models, declining profit margins and job cuts is the central role that quality journalism and in-depth news have in sustaining our democracy. Even rarer — despite all the ink spilled about journalism’s demise — is any serious evaluation of the policies that contributed to journalism’s decline, and which new policies could help to reverse it.
We need a national journalism strategy to overhaul our failing media system and coordinate government intervention to support a vibrant media landscape and a wide variety of experiments in journalistic models.
Any national journalism strategy must:
- Protect the First Amendment: Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential to a free society and a functioning democracy. Everyone should have the right to access and impart information and opinion through the media of their choice.
- Produce Quality Coverage: To self-govern in a democratic society, the public needs in-depth reporting on local issues as well as national and international affairs that is accurate, credible and verifiable. Journalism should include a diversity of voices and viewpoints.
- Provide Adversarial Perspectives: Reporting should hold the powerful accountable by scrutinizing the actions of government and corporations, and journalism should foster genuine debate about important issues of public concern.
- Promote Public Accountability: Newsrooms should serve the public interest, not private or government aims, and should be treated as a public service, not a commodity. Journalism should be responsive to the needs of diverse and changing communities.
- Prioritize Innovation: Journalists should use new tools and technologies to report and deliver the news. The public needs journalism that crosses traditional boundaries and is accessible to the broadest range of people across platforms.
Saving our news media and implementing a national journalism strategy for this transitional moment will require both short- and long-term solutions. Based on the analysis in our report, we have identified five models with the most promise that should be the top priorities for policymakers:
- New Ownership Structures
- Incentives For Divestiture
- Journalism Jobs Program
- R&D Fund for Journalistic innovation
- New Public Media
These models, alone or collectively, will not provide an instant panacea to the crisis in journalism. However, we believe these alternatives are worth further consideration, study and action. Journalism is a critical infrastructure. It is too precious for a democratic society simply to sit back and pray that the market will magically sustain it.
The role of public policy in supporting journalism and fostering public service media is easily overlooked, but its importance cannot be overstated. The media system we have didn’t emerge in a vacuum. It was shaped by specific political and policy decisions. And it is in large part policy decisions — and the political will to make the right ones — that will decide what’s next for journalism.
Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet. The crisis in journalism will undoubtedly require a menu of responses, not a one-size-fits-all solution. Driven by a growing media reform movement, a period of vigorous experimentation with bold new models is the best hope for the future of journalism, the lifeblood of democracy.
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 by Megan Tady
Can’t attend the Free Press Summit: Changing Media this Thursday in Washington, D.C.? No problem. We still want you to be a part of this unique multimedia event to reshape the future of communications in America.
For too long, we’ve been getting superficial, junk journalism while we’ve been clamoring for hard-hitting, quality reporting. For too long, our public media have been woefully underfunded. And for too long, our Internet has been under attack by corporations that want to control what we see and do on the Web. It’s time we changed the media.
Follow along with what’s sure to be an amazing day full of vigorous discussions about
the public interest policies needed to reshape the future of the Internet, journalism and public media.
Follow us on twitter @freepress from the first keynote speaker to the last small-group deliberation — to join the conversation tag your tweets #fpdc.
Check back at freepress.net/summit throughout the day to read our live blogs. And throw on your headphones and press play to catch a few minutes of an exciting speaker – we’ll be video streaming the event!
Click here for the summit agenda so you will know when Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps is taking the stage and when Vivian Schiller, president and CEO of National Public Radio, is giving her keynote speech.
And stay tuned as we transform Thursday’s ideas into action – we’re going to need a powerful grassroots movement to change media, which means, we’ll need you.
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