RJI-fellows

2009-04-02T00:52:09Z

161.130.186.251: /* UPDATE/TONIGHT: What Would Walter Williams Say? */

=UPDATE/TONIGHT: What Would Walter Williams Say?=

What might the author of [http://www.journalism.missouri.edu/about/creed.html "The Journalist's Creed"] make of digital
technology and its impact on the profession of journalism? Dr. Ronald
Farrar, author of "A Creed for My Profession," and Dean Mills, dean of the
Missouri School of Journalism, will explore this question in a
conversation streamed live tonight and moderated by Mike Fancher, Reynolds
Journalism Institute fellow.

You can watch the stream TONIGHT (Wed., April 1, 2009) beginning at 8 p.m. EASTERN (5 p.m. PACIFIC) at:
http://rji.missouri.edu/flash-server/stories/live-stream/index.php

<hr>[http://newshare.com/wiki/index.php/Creed-walter-williams LINK TO RUNNING NOTES OF THE DISCUSSION]<hr>

==Renewing the Journalist's Creed --A talk and discussion by Mike Fancher==
===Wed., Jan. 28, 2009 / Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute / Fred W. Smith Forum===

On Wednesday evening, Jan. 28, 2009, [http://rji.missouri.edu/fellows-program/fancher-m/index.php Mike Fancher,] former editor, <i>The Seattle Times,</i> discussed his 2008-2009
Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute project to "Renewing the
Journalist's Creed."

ARCHIVED VIDEO STREAM:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1102786

If there's any problem there, check this page:
http://newshare.com/wiki/index.php/RJI-fellows
for an update.

PROGRAM DETAILS:

===="Renewing the Journalist's Creed"====

Almost 100 years ago, Walter Williams wrote, "I believe in the profession
of journalism." Can the journalists of the 21st Century make such a
statement? How are the challenges they face different from those of
previous generations, and what must they do for public-service journalism
to remain viable, relevant and accountable?

Fancher's talk and discussion with members of the Missouri School of
Journalism community will take place in the Fred W. Smith Forum of the
Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute in Columbia, Mo., a state-of-the
art facility that is fast becoming one of the nation's premiere venues for
collaboration on the future of news and journalism.

Fancher retired from The Seattle Times last year, after 20 as executive
editor. During his tenure The Times won four Pulitzer Prizes and was a
Pulitzer finalists 13 other times.

A story about his retirement quoted a former deputy mayor and Boeing
executive as saying: "Under Mike, the paper was fearless about tackling
subjects it thought were important to the community. There were a lot of
people in the community who didn't like that. But, at the same time, the
paper was gutsy, and fearless in admitting when it made a mistake."

A competing editor said, "As a competitor, no one was tougher than
Fancher. He's incredibly creative on both the strategic, visionary level
and at the tactical street fights that are part of winning and losing
readers. The Seattle Times under Fancher was ahead of most newspapers in
figuring out how to thrive in an increasingly complex media environment.
The cornerstones were a comprehensive local news report, an emphasis on
public-service investigative reporting, and assembling a stable of
columnists and critics with singular, strong voices."
<br>
<hr>

==[http://rji.missouri.edu REYNOLDS JOURNALISM INSTITUTE HOME PAGE]==

Creed-walter-williams

2009-04-02T00:48:34Z

161.130.186.251: New page: Ron Farrar thinks it is a mistake to blame it all on the Internet. Smaller newspapers are doing OK. They have lost only 2% circulation. Williams would put it in context “and I think...

Ron Farrar thinks it is a mistake to blame it all on the Internet.

Smaller newspapers are doing OK. They have lost only 2% circulation.

Williams would put it in context “and I think he would go beyond blaming it on technology. I think WW would say one of the major problems is that much of the audience, especially the larger papers, no longer trusts what it reads or sees.”

He thinks WW would be appalled by the liberal bias he would see in much of the media. He thinks WW would be amazed how many people “have been pushed into the clutches of Rush Limbaugh.” He says Fox news dominates radio and TV.

He says Williams was extremely liberal in his own time. “Key words, fairness and accuracy. I think those are missing.”

Mills: “I’ve given up trying to channel Walter Wiliams.” But every morning he thinks: “Please don’t screw it up today.”

“I think he would have embraced enthusiastically the new technologies and would have tried to think about how to use them to produce better journalism . . . and about how to support democracies . . . . “

MILLS: “I guess I ma not as convinced as ron that he would have been all that alarmed by what we call the MSM covers the news.” There have always been biases, even in WW’s time from the right and the left. Main objective “is to try to sort that out as much as possible and get rid of that as much as possible.”

FARRAR: “The people who switch over to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are in many cases just trading one bias for another.”

MILLS: “To many extends, they have lost connection with who their audiences . . . [he hopes] the new technologies will help us solve that problem.”

FANCHER: Students have talked about that lack of connection.

FARRAR: A second point he would bring up: Civility. For all his determination, “nobody was more tenacious, than WW with all he went through to found this school and yet throughout it all he was very much courteous, a gentleman. I think we’ve lost some of that.”

Tells the story about Joan Kroc. “It was a smart alec story. What I’m saying is WW would have found a way to get that story in the paper without alienating everybody in the town.” Yet, “not to have that story in the paper would have been inexcusable.”
MILLS: Because of Drudge: “Responsible media now have to react to rumors . . . because its in the conversation.”

FARRAR: “First, you gotta like the country. You can’t be condescending in your copy.” “I think WW had great respect for the community in which he lived and the people he was writing to and for.”

MILLS: “To me this is much more important than a liberal or conservative bias – there is kind of a smart alecky bias – a sort of condescension . . . and it is offputting to people.”

FANCHER: Notes that in his conversations with some of the other RJI Fellows, that is some evidence that the journalism on the web is more solution oriented than “gotcha” oriented.

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