Serving the Poor
“I think a strong argument can be made that the residents of [poorer] areas are severely disadvantaged—as citizens, as workers, as consumers—by the lack of serious coverage from television and the lack of local coverage of their neighborhoods by newspapers,” said Maxwell King former Editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The reason, of course, is that the media, regardless of their claims of serving all the people, aim for the affluent, the audience that advertisers seek. It would seem, then, that if newspapers want to expand readership they would be worried about the growing gap between the rich and the poor.
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1. National Security
2. State and Local Government
3. Economics
4. Nonprofit OrganizationsOn the eve of the 21st Century, a new challenge faces journalism, which concerns itself with democratic interests of the country and requires the
development of new concepts and new tools for the new circumstances. The combined impacts of the dominance of the free market—of free market capitalism, digital and satellite technology, the potential for global commerce and journalism on the World Wide Web—have all led to massive and dislocating social, political and economic changes. Among the changes that are of interest to our work here today are the devolution of authority to state and local levels of government, deregulation of economic power, privatization of public services to private institutions and nonprofit institutions, the reordering of the economic organization of news companies in part responsible for the disappearance of foreign news and much of America’s news reports, and a reordering of news agendas.
The four panels [at this conference] are designed to touch on those issues—national security, state and local government, economics and nonprofit organizations.
Bill Kovach, Nieman Foundation Curator, speaking at the first Watchdog Conference, May 2, 1998.
1. National Security
2. State and Local Government
3. Economics
4. Nonprofit OrganizationsOn the eve of the 21st Century, a new challenge faces journalism, which concerns itself with democratic interests of the country and requires the
development of new concepts and new tools for the new circumstances. The combined impacts of the dominance of the free market—of free market capitalism, digital and satellite technology, the potential for global commerce and journalism on the World Wide Web—have all led to massive and dislocating social, political and economic changes. Among the changes that are of interest to our work here today are the devolution of authority to state and local levels of government, deregulation of economic power, privatization of public services to private institutions and nonprofit institutions, the reordering of the economic organization of news companies in part responsible for the disappearance of foreign news and much of America’s news reports, and a reordering of news agendas.
The four panels [at this conference] are designed to touch on those issues—national security, state and local government, economics and nonprofit organizations.
Bill Kovach, Nieman Foundation Curator, speaking at the first Watchdog Conference, May 2, 1998.
