Columbia J-School Releases Report on How to Salvage the Profession

Image by miniature via Flickr

An emphasis on local "accountability journalism" and a melange of foundation funding, nonprofit options, and open access to information are part of the recipe for the "Reconstruction of American Journalism," according to a report sponsored by Columbia Univ. Graduate School of Journalism.

The report, prepared by Columbia J-Prof. Michael Schudson and former Washington Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., is optimistic about online journalism opportunities. A shortened version will appear in the November/December issue of Columbia Journalism Review.

Downie must have experienced an epiphany to advocate, in part, for government assistance to shore up the journalism profession. When he was an editor at the Post, he refused to vote in elections because he believed it compromised journalistic objectivity to appear beholden to candidates or a political party.