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HUMANITIES INQUIRY
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PAST EVENT:
2004 Humanities Inquiry
Breaking News:
The State of Today's Information Media
BIAHC concluded its month-long examination of the role and responsibilities
of the news media with an April 2, 2004 community discussion of
the issues raised by keynote speaker James Fallows in his February
27, 2004 opening lecture.
Many of the problems facing the media today, and us as media consumers,
he remarked, have to do with journalism's change from a special
kind of business to a normal kind of business: one driven by the
economic forces of the market rather than public interest concerns
and traditional journalism values.
What this means is that for the motivated, educated consumer, high
quality news and information is more available than ever before.
However, the vast, middle part of the populace will be encountering
the what Mr. Fallows described as the media equivalent of Wal-Mart,
based on the industry's perception that most people will pay attention
to the news only if it is made as entertaining as other options
available to them.
Why should these changes matter to us on Bainbridge Island? Because,
in a democracy, it becomes a major problem if our fellow citizens
are ill-informed about decisions we collectively have to make. Therefore,
our responsibility as news consumers to seek out and support news
information sources that provide an accurate, unbiased picture of
what is going on in the world is as important as that of the news
media industry to produce that information.
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For further information on these and other topics in the inquiry,
go to the humanities inquiry links at the top of this page or in
the program listings below. BIAHC plans to show videotapes of several
of the programs on Bainbridge Island Broadcasting, Channel 12, towards
the end of the summer. Check the BIB schedule at www.bibonline.org.
Suggested Resource Links >>
Breaking News was funded in part by a grant from Humanities Washington
and co-presented by the Washington News Council.
BIAHC would also like to thank the following organizations and
individuals that helped make Breaking News possible:
CO-SPONSORS & SUPPORTERS
Bainbridge High School
Bainbridge Island Broadcasting
Bainbridge Island Historical Society
Bainbridge Island Park & Recreation District
Bainbridge Public Library
The Bainbridge Review
Hat Factory Studios
Imagine Bainbridge
Island Theatre
Ann Jensen Warman, Brand Unity, Inc
The Principia Club of the Olympic Peninsula
Radio Bainbridge Institute
Roby King Galleries
Rolling Bay Gourmet
Community Sponsors
Jeanette Alexander Graphic Design
Dan and Harriet Alexander
Association of Bainbridge Communities
Bart and Dana Berg
Paul and Debbi Brainerd
Virginia and Tom Brewer
Frank Buxton and Cynthia Sears
Frontier Bank
Ralph and Deborah Cheadle
John and Barbara Ellis
Tom Fehsenfeld and Janet Knox
David and Robin Guterson
David and Cynthia Harrison
Bill and Liz Knobloch
Darlene Kordonowy
Ed and Karen Kushner
Jack and Edna Lewis
Mary Lewis
Andy and Sallie Maron
Jeannie McMacken
Forest and Marilyn Monkman
Tom and Beth Morgan
Barry and Channy Peters
John and Ann Powel
Merrill and Sally Robison
Bob and Jeannie Satterwhite
Shaboom, Inc.
Nan and Norm Wooldridge
Ross and Elina Yeager
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LINKS:
Washington News Council
The WNC is the co-presenter of Breaking News. It is a Seattle-based
nonprofit organization whose mission is to help maintain public
trust and confidence in the news media by promoting fairness, accuracy
and balance, and by creating a forum where the public and the news
media can engage each other in examining standards of journalistic
fairness.
http://www.wanewscouncil.org
The Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA)
A nonpartisan research and educational organization whose
goal is to provide an empirical basis for ongoing debates over media
fairness and impact through well-documented, timely, and readable
studies of media content.
http://www.cmpa.com
NOW with Bill Moyers
An in-depth examination of the FCC's new media ownership
rules.
http://www.pbs.org
Journalism.org
Research, Resources, and Ideas to Improve Journalism. The online
home of the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Committee
of Concerned Journalists.
http://www.journalism.org
Media Watch
The Online News Hour with Jim Lehrer. PBS.
http://www.pbs.org
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BREAKING NEWS EVENTS
1. Keynote Speaker: James Fallows.
The National Correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly describes
how changes in the ownership and structure of the news media are
changing its fundamental role in public life.
February 27, 2004. MORE
>>
2. The Media and the Law.
Bruce E. H. Johnson, media lawyer from Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP.,
and John Merton Marrs, Ph.D., journalism instructor, Everett Community
College, discuss the constitutional underpinnings of the press,
landmark media cases, and current issues in media law.
March 1. MORE >>
3. The Impact of New Technology on the News Media.
Are Internet news sites, C-Span, weblogs, cable networks, satellite
TV and other new data sources providing better news coverage, or
simply adding to what many people consider the media wasteland?
Is the increasing globalization of the media helping or hindering
democracy? A panel considers whether the Internet and other newdata
sources are providing better news coverage or simply adding to a
media wasteland.
Panelists: Cyrus Krohn, publisher of Slate.com
and member of the Washington News Council; Alex M. Dunne, managing
editor of Blue Ear Daily (BlueEar.com); and Doug Schuler, from the
Seattle Community Network Association. Moderator: Stephen Silha.
March 8. MORE >>
4. The History of Political Cartoons.
H. L. Mencken once said, "Give me a good cartoonist, and I
can throw out half the editorial staff." This exhibit illustrates
the history of American political cartoons from 1754 through 1995.
cartoons
Throughout March, Bainbridge Public Library Meeting Room. Two-time
Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist David Horsey does a multimedia
presentation of his own work for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
March 15. MORE >>
5. Dear Editor
A Playreading of Letters to The Bainbridge Review. Island Theatre
presents a dramatic reading of selections of letters to the Bainbridge
Review throughout the Island's history to illustrate the role of
a local paper in community life.
March 13. MORE >>
6. Media Matters
A Conversation with Youth and Adults about Living in a Media World.
An Open Space forum sponsored by Imagine Bainbridge and Bainbridge
Island Broadcasting.
March 20. MORE >>
7. Television News
If It Bleeds, It Leads? This panel discussion focuses on the reasons
for the growing dissatisfaction with televised news stories and
the rise of "infotainment," such as dramatized news stories
and news programs that emphasize crime, celebrities, entertainment,
and human melodrama. Panelists: John Arthur Wilson , former KING
TV reporter; Enrique Cerna, Executive Producer for Local Production,
KCTS 9 Television; Melanie McFarland, TV critic for the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer ; and Bainbridge Islander Peter O'Connell, Executive
Producer of Special Projects for KING 5 News.
March 22. MORE >>
8. Washington News Council Mock Hearing
Bainbridge High School students play the role of the Washington
News Council in an actual case brought against a news organization
by a member of the public or an organization that believes it has
been damaged by a news story.
The case under consideration will be the June 2003 complaint against
KIRO-TV from the state Beef and Dairy Commissions for a series of
stories aired by KIRO-TV in November 2002 that depicted alleged
humane handling violations at a meat packing plant.
After considering the news report and listening to testimony on
both sides, the students will decide if the story was fair, accurate
and balanced. The mock hearing is followed by a discussion on how
the real WNC voted and why. March 26. MORE
>>
9. Journalistic Ethics, Objectivity, Accuracy and Fairness
John Hamer, Executive Director of the Washington News Council,
moderates a panel discussion on the role of the reporter in the
changing news media world.
Panelists include Christian Science Monitor reporter Brad Knickerbocker;
Seattle P-I Foreign Desk Editor Larry Johnson, who recently returned
from assignment in Iraq; Rick Jackson, Instructor of Journalism,
Seattle Pacific University, and Philip Dawdy, staff writer for the
Seattle Weeky.
March 29. MORE >>
10. The News Media & Society
The final panel presentation in the program is a community forum,
led by a panel of experts and moderated by Ross Reynolds, host of
The Conversation on KUOW, on the present role of the news media
in a democratic society and whether journalism can remain an independent
force.
Panelists: Margaret Gordon, Professor and Dean Emeritus of the
Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington;
Mark Trahant, Editorial page editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer;
Carole Carmichael, Assistant Managing Editor, Features, Seattle
Times; Sarah Ruth van Gelder, Executive Editor, YES! magazine and
Stephen Silha, Washington News Council member, communications consultant
and former newspaper reporter.
April 2. MORE >>
11. Breaking News Film Festival
Breaking News concludes with a four-evening film festival of important
films that deal with journalism and the news media business. His
Girl Friday (1940), Ace in the Hole (1951), All the Presidents'
Men (1976), Absence of Malice (1981).
April 5 - 8. MORE
>>
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