Renewing Journalism, Restoring Democracy: Framing the Conversation (1 of 2)

By keeping the public informed and holding the powerful to account, journalism plays a vital role in the life of democratic societies. Maintaining an objective public record-whether by fact-checking political advertisements, or scoring political speeches with Pinocchios-is only the most obvious of journalists’ contributions. When institutional norms fail, the media serve as an additional set of guardrails, offering critique while safeguarding democratic institutions. And media outlets also provide the independent forums needed to debate reforms and remedies for what ails the body politic.
Yet today, the traditional institutions of both journalism and democracy appear to be in crisis. How are the challenges facing these two sets of institutions interconnected? What does the future hold for each? And what might a hopeful path forward be for both? To explore these pressing questions, the Clough Center has chosen to focus on “Journalism and Democracy” for the 2022-23 academic year.
At Renewing Journalism, Restoring Democracy we launch our year-long exploration of this theme with a star-studded panel of contributors. In an opening keynote, Michael Schudson, one of the country’s leading journalism scholars, will ask what values should guide journalism in a democracy, with a Q&A facilitated by Angela Ards (Director of BC Journalism). Next, in a journalists’ roundtable moderated by Tiziana Dearing (WBUR), we will hear Piotr Smolar (Le Monde), and Renée Graham (Boston Globe) speak to the local and international dimensions of these questions. Finally, Jim Acosta, CNN Anchor and Chief Domestic Correspondent, will close the evening by sharing his observations on the state of the field today, with discussion afterwards facilitated by Michael Serazio (BC Communications).