JOURNALISM at a JUNCTURE an Interim Report to the National Press Club Membership on the Nationwide 2008 Centennial Forums Program
JOURNALISM AT A JUNCTURE An Interim Report to the National Press Club Membership on the Nationwide 2008 Centennial Forums Program. By Gil Klein Director, Centennial Forums Project January 16, 2009. For its 2008/9 centennial year, the National Press Club asked me to organize a nationwide series of forums to engage leading journalists, news media authorities, students and citizens in a conversation on “The First Amendment, Freedom of the Press and the Future of Journalism.” At each stop, we gathered a panel of print, broadcast and online journalists as well as a journalism academic or First Amendment scholar – about 130 in all -- to talk about where the news business is going and how to protect its core values as its underlying economic model changes. Crossing the Mississippi River a dozen times, I visited 24 states and the District of Columbia. The NPC president, former presidents and board members hosted events in another four states, and we held forums by live Webcast and two-way satellite communication from the Club to journalism school and public audiences in another six states. In all, the project reached thousands of people in audiences at 38 locations in 34 States and DC, usually at journalism schools, regional Press Clubs and civic auditoriums. Add in C-SPAN’s coverage of the New York City forum, broadcast on local community access television, university channels and public radio stations, as well as public radio interviews, and the project reached a nationwide audience of many thousands more. I bring you greetings from press clubs that co-sponsored our forums in Atlanta, San Diego, Denver, Milwaukee, New Orleans and Naples, Fla.
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