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the old guard of princeton

April 22, 2009

Journalism at a Crossroads:
​What the Demise of Newsprint and the Rise of Online Publishing Mean for Civic Discourse

Kathy Kiely
Ferris Visiting Professor of Journalism, Princeton

Minutes of the 28th Meeting of the 67th Year
President George Hansen called to order the 28th meeting of the 67th year at precisely 10:15 AM.  Don Edwards led the invocation. Joan Fleming read the minutes of the last meeting, with gusto, to over 90 members in attendance. Ted Meth introduced his wife, Barbara Graham. 
 
President Hansen informed the members of the death of John Marks and asked for a moment of silence in his memory. A memorial service will be held at the Nassau Presbyterian Church on Sunday at 11:00 AM.
 
The Nominating Committee report was presented by Harvey Rothberg, in the absence of the chair, Joe Bolster. The slate is unchanged from last year except for the Recording Secretary, John Frederick, who wishes to resign, though no one has volunteered to replace him so far. In the Committee Chairs, Charlie Stenard, Membership Chair, has resigned and is replaced by Jack Riley. There was no nomination from the floor and voting will be held next week.
 
Bob Varrin, chair of the program committee, recommended that the Old Guard use a ‘snow day’ to make up for the meeting cancelled this past winter. He suggested that the Princeton Art Museum Curator, Jerome Silbergeld, would speak on: “Outside-In: Chinese-American Contemporary Art,” at our May 27 meeting at the Friends Center at 10:15 A.M. This is the title of the exhibit presently at the museum, which will be on display through June 7, and Bob assigned, as homework to us all, viewing the exhibit before the talk. The suggested program was voted on by the members and passed enthusiastically by a show of hands.
 
Today’s speaker was introduced by Landon Jones. Kathy Kiely is the Visiting Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University this year. She is a 1977 graduate of Princeton, with a major in English. She began her career in journalism, in her hometown, for the Pittsburg Press. Following this, she worked for the Houston Post, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and the New York Daily News in Washington; she now covers Congress for USA Today.
 
Her topic today is: ‘Journalism at the Crossroads’ or as she subtitled it to Landon: ‘Google-You Tube-Facebook-Twitter: Will online publishing improve on the newspaper that soon will cease to thud reliably against your doorstep every morning? Or will it prove a medium for propaganda, urban myth and bamboozlement?’
 
Ms. Kiely began with her initial cub reporting assignment for the Pittsburg Press, during the 1980 Presidential Campaign, interviewing a little known speaker representing Governor Reagan. It was a slow news cycle and she was under severe deadline pressure but she asked the most questions to an increasingly irritated speaker. At the end of the interview she went over to Mr. Rumsfeld, Class of ’55, (immediately corrected by Bob Varrin to ’54), struck out her hand and said: “Princeton Class of ’77!”  His “balloon” deflated instantly.
 
Ms. Kiely described herself as: “A broken-down member of a dying profession: "Printesaurus newspaperus!" She stated that print dailies are disappearing faster than ever and she is concerned about the free flow of information and its equal access on our democratic process. 
 
She asked her students to keep a 48h diary of their news source and it surprised them to find how dependent they were on their laptop. All the new online news programs –Yahoo, Slate.com, and Saturday Night Live – spell trouble for newspapers. She noted that Google has no reporters anywhere and all the reports are from readers of other sources.
 
She still feels that students of journalism are motivated by their desire to look for the truth and that the situation offers enormous possibilities to make something new out of someone else’s bad news. Less job security could mean more freedom of action. We must reinvent how we communicate as a society. We must explore how to exploit new technology and overcome its problems. 
 
She poses the following problems to her students: 
  • Who will pay for reporting? 
It costs money and time to cover all aspects of our government. Will foundations, member contributors requiring ‘begathons’, or government financing fill the void? The latter raises special concerns: who will investigate the government, who will bite the hand that feeds you? Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts is presently holding hearings. When the Newark Star Ledger changed owners they laid off 200 years of reporting experience to stay open.
  • How do we assure that digital communication broadens our world?  
The internet can be narrowing in our search and if we only follow our choices we may not look for different viewpoints and avoid challenges to our conventional wisdom.  LBJ and MLK were helped in their fight against racial discrimination by newspaper editors in Tennessee and Georgia.
  • How do we keep serendipity of news, available in newspapers but lacking in the focused search of the internet, present in our life? 
  •  How to present 24h news in our over-constant news feed? 
The push now is to make the latest news central, to keep our eyes focused and attract advertisers. How do we keep our attention with “Breaking News!” every 20 minutes?  Have you ever heard of a “small storm” on the weather channel?
  • How to manage the flattening effect of information overload on perspective? 
She sees a need for her students, and all of us, to learn to use and consume new technology responsibly. How to channel the flow coming at us from the ‘fire-hose’ of information?
  • How to caution her students on the reliability of online sources, such as Wikipedia, by advising: “Trust but verify!” Also on the difficulty of removing information from the internet once it has gotten on.     
She stills loves her life as a reporter and feels that she could never have seen all that she has working in any other profession, but change is coming. “You can’t stop the wave, it can knock you down or you must get a surfboard!”
 
A lively question and answer period followed.
 
Ms. Kiely made a request for contributions to The Daily Princetonian digitization project at Larry DuPraz Archives at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library:
 
Mark check with: Account #690-2752 and send to:
 
Daniel J. Linke
Mudd Manuscript Library
65 Olden St.
Princeton, NJ 08540
 
The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 AM.
 
Respectfully submitted,
Charles L. Rojer, M.D.

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