NMPW member Tom Johnson discusses “Death (or Life?) of American Journalism” on Thursday, Nov. 19, from 1-3 PM in a Zoom meeting in cooperation with the Santa Fe-based RENESAN Institute for Lifelong Learning.
There were 71,000 journalists in America in 2008. By 2018 that number had dropped to 38,000. There were 50 major media corporations in America in 1983. Today there are five. New research shows that more than 2,000 newspapers have closed since 2004. About 1,300 US communities have lost local news coverage. Levels of trust for American journalism have fallen sharply and been replaced by screeds from the political left and right narrow-casting media. Yet Americans still need the data harvested and reported by trusted, dedicated journalists to make individual and collective decisions pertaining to economics, politics, cultural mores, entertainment, and sports. Can new intellectual, financial, procedural, and legal sources be found to deliver information necessary to maintain a functioning, dynamic democracy? NMPW member Tom Johnson has prepared video material especially and solely for part of this lecture. In addition, ample time will be available for responses to student’s questions.
Tom is Professor of Journalism (Emeritus) at San Francisco State University and the founder and co-director of the Institute for Analytic Journalism in Santa Fe. He is on the board of directors of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government and Santa Fe’s Council on International Relations. Over a 40-year career in journalism, Johnson taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Boston University’s College of Communication and lectured and conducted workshops in England, Poland, South Africa, and Latin America.
Click here to register for the event. Tuition for the course is $15.00.