Many Americans live in a version of the world remarkably close to the one Michael Schudson pondered in 1995—because either they lack access to news or they choose to ignore journalism in favor of other, more sensational content. By exploring how journalism is increasingly absent from many of our lives, we can identify false paths and promising routes to its reinvention.
The larger story here, and the one that these modest collaborative experiments point to, is about democracy — something that only becomes possible when people have access to the knowledge needed to make individual and collective decisions. Too often, the people writing about these topics obscure the true stakes, and ignore the potential offered by the existing cultural infrastructure of libraries, media organizations, schools, and communication systems.
I picked up a reporter’s notebook, handed it to him, and told him to bring a pen. Bob’s idea of showing emotion was to smile slightly, showing the well-stimulated incisors. He didn’t smile. No doubt he thought, the kid’s acting up again, but . . . it’s his last day, and it was. I was thirty-one and had been a reporter at the Times for four years, but I was leaving to go to Yale Law School. Except I’d just gotten a scoop and I couldn’t walk away from it.
There will be time for an outbreak postmortem once the U.S. gets past the threat of the coronavirus -- and the nation will move past it, just as it has countless challenges in the past. The question now is how many Americans will suffer and how many will die unnecessarily. Our goal should be to protect as many fellow citizens as possible, regardless of political affiliation, race, age, gender, etc. Viruses neither care about nor recognize these traits, nor should we when addressing a crisis. Unfortunately, our efforts to safeguard the populace have been seriously undermined by the current social and political climate, rife with division and prejudice, and this climate has been not only fostered, but furthered, by the current administration.
As some news sources struggle to maintain profitable business models, public broadcasting continues to offer in-depth coverage of important issues. Because its primary mission is public service and not profit, it can remain independent of corporate influences without sensationalizing news issues to boost ratings. As such, public channels are more highly trusted than commercial channels for the accuracy, reliability and impartiality of their news coverage.
For news headlines, 2013 didn’t disappoint. From ongoing violence in the Middle East to the rollout of landmark health care reform here at home, the ascension of a new pope and the passing of an international human rights icon, the year’s tumult was splashed across news Websites and front pages worldwide. But for U.S.-based ethnic media, there were other stories that – while less reported – hit closer to home.
This month, the Pew Research Journalism Project reported how Americans get their news at home. If you think it’s from the Internet, you’ll be surprised that the 38 percent of us who access news at home on a desktop or laptop spend an average of only 90 seconds a day getting news online. America’s dominant news source is television, and the disparity between heavy viewers of TV news and everyone else is as startling as the gap between the plutocrats and the people.
In curating this lineup, I selected four films that all share one specific point of commonality: flawed people trying to make it through their day despite the odds being stacked against them. Some stories are more successful than others, yet these four films demonstrate a unique perspective in their search to make sense of our current American lifestyles.
Godfrey was returning to the area at the time to find inspiration for a book about the lives of the girls who live in a group home since they have nowhere else to go. There, she meets Josephine Bell, the de facto leader of the girls. Godfrey quickly learns of their harsh lifestyle and the fact that the city sees them as disposable.
