Sat, June 5th, 2010

It's easy to get depressed about the state of media, but this session is about writing a future.

A year ago, Barbara Ehrenreich laid it on the line to the journalism graduates at the University of California: "You are going to be trying to carve out a career in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. You are furthermore going to be trying to do so within what appears to be a dying industry. You have abundant skills and talents -- it's just not clear that anyone wants to pay you for them."

In their latest book, The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again, Robert McChesney and John Nichols have a provocative plan to save real journalism in the wake of the failed business model of corporate newspapering. Let's talk about the issues raised by this and other books: The state of reporting in the 21st Century, the death of corporate media, the strengths and weaknesses of Internet journalism, and how to revive a journalism that comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.

Update: If you're interested in this topic, but haven't had a chance to engage with McChesney's and Nichols' book directly, do take an hour to listen to this February 2010 interview with Christopher Lydon at Radio Open Source.