| Future of Journalism Summit |
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Proposal for A One-Day Summit and Extended Online Discussion for Professionals, Scholars, and Educators in the Rocky Mountain Region and Beyond
Proposed by the University of Denver with involvement from the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, University of Northern Colorado, Colorado College, and other universities of the region The University of Denver is planning to hold an invitation-based Summit that brings select journalism scholars, professionals, educators, and business and entrepreneurial leaders into conversation with one another. The aim will be to explore journalistic developments in the Rocky Mountain Region in the context of emergent journalism practices, products, and business models in the larger national and international news media landscape. The conference aims to highlight successful and less-than-successful journalistic ventures in these markets so that scholars, professionals, and educators can share and learn from a wide range of entrepreneurial experiments. We are organizing the one-day event as an invited conversation so that we can include people from a wide range of backgrounds and can foster discussion among them for the greatest possible benefit for all. Although this conference is not being held in direct response to the discontinuance of the Journalism program at Colorado’s flagship university, that event has prompted universities of the region to seek ways to work together to foster a productive exchange between practitioners, scholars, and educators and to address problems that are unique to the Rocky Mountain region. Our goal is to foster conversation that will be useful to those in our region and beyond while also creating a lasting online multimedia site that will feature resources especially relevant for issues of today’s journalists. Thus, the outcome of this event will be twofold: first, to foster networking and generate new ideas for our region in the one-day event, and second, to utilize the conference in combination with the Institute for Digital Humanities program at the University of Denver as a springboard to develop an online resource that will support and extend a robust conversation for two years after the initial meeting. · How are news audiences changing, and what is the relationship between journalism, satire, social media, and various forms of storytelling that have emerged as critical voices in the public realm? And how are people learning to sort through the vast field of information available to determine what is important and worth knowing? · How are journalism professionals faring in this new environment, and what business models are emerging? How are journalists and organizations transitioning as their roles shift from that of content provider to entrepreneur? · What are the implications of these changes for those who would seek to embrace the role of the journalist in the future, and for those involved in journalism education? · How are these changes affecting our collective perceptions of truth, ethics, and democratic decisionmaking, and how do these changes shape the agenda for the would-be journalists and journalistic leaders of the future? Denver and the Rocky Mountain area represent an ideal location for this conference. In addition to the proposed discontinuance of the University of Colorado’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Denver is also one of the major cities in the U.S. to lose a Scripps daily newspaper with the closing of the Rocky Mountain News in 2009. But Colorado is also home to journalistic innovation and experimentation, with several small grant-funded investigative reporting experiments, a vital independent news source on Colorado government, a growing digital storytelling contingent, a lively and growing public radio presence, a terrific tradition of environmental journalism, and an innovative experiment in community media with the Open Media Foundation. The University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business also boasts one of the most prestigious and innovative business ethics programs in the country, has an outstanding graduate program in innovation and entrepreneurship, and excels in both social responsibility and in the telecommunications and new technology industries. The University can therefore draw upon connections with a variety of business interests and expertise to provide guidance and models as journalists and their organizations transition to meet the needs of the emergent environment. Even as the large news outlets of the New York Times, CNN, and NPR continue to thrive, as a medium sized city, Denver shares a great deal in common with the vast number of communities across the country (and indeed the world) that must struggle to find new models of supporting the local and regional public through news. We therefore want to host this conversation both for the people in our own area and areas like it that are deeply affected, and for those who are considering the future of journalism from a worldwide perspective. Proposed Schedule:
People get their news today in venues that look much different than they did just ten years ago, and this has implications for everything about news: how it’s paid for, where it’s found, even what “counts” as news. This conversation considers news from the perspectives of its various audiences: mainstream and marginalized, diverse and culturally plural, young and older adults, women and men, nascent news followers and news junkies. What do they want? What and how are they finding it? Who’s paying for it? And how do strategic communication partners and special interest sources round out (or shape) the picture? Coffee break
Clearly, the days of newspapers and television news subsidized by classifieds and local retail advertising are behind us. But what is emerging in place of the industries that our communities have long counted on for reliable news? This session explores new entrepreneurial models, foundation support, venture capital, and the development of alliances and new business strategies, considering spectacular failures as well as promising successes. 12:00 - 1:45 Conversation over Lunch: choose your topic, introduce yourself, join the conversation Coffee break
Although the industry itself is in flux, journalism is not dying. Indeed, there is more demand for journalism in a 24/7 marketplace than ever before. Today’s crisis provides an opportunity to look at not only what we want, but what we need from journalism.
Updates on this proposed conference will be posted here. For more information please contact Lynn Schofield Clark at the University of Denver at Lynn (dot) Clark (at) DU.edu. Last updated: 12/14/2010
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