If you’re interested in exploring the relationship between journalism and democracy and don’t want to do that by yourself, there’s a two-part community read-and-discuss series on tap that will help your exploration.
It starts at 6 p.m. tonight at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in downtown Eau Claire. The second session is scheduled for the same time and place next Tuesday (Oct. 9).
The book at the center of the discussion is “The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect,” by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. It is available for checkout at the Eau Claire Library.
Kovach is a former Washington bureau chief for The New York Times and a former editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Rosenstiel is executive director of the American Press Institute and was the founder and for 16 years the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a research organization that studies the news media.
This evening’s discussion will be led by Jan Larson, a UW-Eau Claire journalism professor and chair of its Communication and Journalism Department. The second session, on Oct. 8, will include a Skype conversation with Rosenstiel, where the public will have a chance to ask about his thoughts on how poverty should be covered in the news.
Both events are free, but those attending are asked to register in advance. Registration can be completed online at https://beyondtheheadlineswisconsin.org/eau-claire.
These two events are part of “Beyond the Headlines” (BTH), a program of the Wisconsin Humanities Council funded in part by local organizations and media outlets in the Eau Claire area. Many of the BTH events here look at whether the news media’s coverage of poverty in Eau Claire county provides the amount and kinds of information that will lead to informed decisions and policies on that subject.
“Beyond the Headlines” is one of more than 50 projects by state humanities councils nationwide that are funded by the Mellon Foundation as part of its “Democracy and the Informed Citizen” initiative which was created in partnership with the Pulitzer Prizes. Major funding for “Beyond the Headlines” also comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Note: the CVPost is among the local news organizations participating in “Beyond the Headlines” and its Board chair, David Gordon, is a member of the project’s steering committee.
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