Bill Mckibben As Journalist, Public Intellectual and Activist
Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy Discussion Paper Series #D-78, March 2013 Nature’s Prophet: Bill McKibben as Journalist, Public Intellectual and Activist By Matthew C. Nisbet Shorenstein Fellow, Fall 2012 School of Communication and the Center for Social Media American University Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. INTRODUCTION Over the past two decades, a unique class of journalist and public intellectual has gained prominence. Rather than straight reporting, these “knowledge journalists” specialize in the translation of complex subjects, often championing specific policy positions or causes. As public intellectuals, they tend to view the world deductively, immersing themselves in the synthesis of complex areas of research, offering analysis across cases and events. Through their best-selling books and commentary, they influence how we think and talk, infusing the abstract with meaning, and turning the complex into a common vocabulary. Yet, they are also criticized for their characterization of uncertainty, for imposing their point-of-view, for lacking specialized credentials, for reducing explanations to a single idea, theory, or field; and often, for blurring the lines between journalism and activism. Knowledge journalists in popular discussion remain loosely identified as celebrity authors who trade in big ideas, coin trends, drive book sales, and inspire movements. Leading contemporary examples include The New York Times’ columnist David Brooks (author of The Social Animal),1 CNN/Time magazine’s Fareed Zakaria (The Post American World),2 The Nation’s Naomi Klein (The Shock Doctrine),3 and University of California journalism professor Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma).4 Yet despite their prominence, little to no scholarship has been done on the nature of their work or their influence.
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