Knight Chair Brant Houston posted’”The Future of Investigative Journalism” on his web site, a comprehensive look at this important form of reporting. In it,’he explains the rise of investigative nonprofits and the Knight Foundation’s leadership role. Last summer, we announced our Investigative Reporting Initiative, a $15 million effort to create and grow these nonprofit projects. […]
Article · May 19, 2010 by Eric Newton
We found this video to be fascinating piece of history:’the vision for delivering a richer news experience using tablets.’It only took 20 years for these things to finally come to life with the Kindle and iPad. Would be cool to watch it on an iPad.
Article · April 28, 2010 by Eric Newton
Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaks to the American Society of News Editors on April 11, 2010 in Washington, D.C. In Washington D.C., a convention of leading newspaper editors is underway that in very few ways resembles such gatherings of the past. 2010’s ‘News Now Ideas Summit‘ features more than 20 Knight Foundation grantees on the […]
Article · April 13, 2010 by Eric Newton
Eric Newton is vice president of the journalism program for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It’s good that the FCC has put forward the nation’s first real broadband plan. Having a good plan is an essential first step in bringing high-speed Internet access to all Americans ‘ and that is an essential […]
Article · March 19, 2010 by Eric Newton
With political leaders pledging great transparency, do we still need Sunshine Week to promote open government? Absolutely. This year’s Knight Open Government Survey, done by George Washington University’s National Security Archive, found that only’13 of 90 surveyed federal agencies have made any concrete changes to their Freedom of Information practices even though the president directed them […]
Article · March 17, 2010 by Eric Newton
Cross-posted from the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard [In October, the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy issued its report on how our media need to evolve to serve the public interest in the digital age. The effort included some big names: Google’s Marissa Mayer, former solicitor general Ted Olson, […]
Article · January 20, 2010 by Eric Newton
This essay has been cross-posted from the Nieman Journalism Lab. Way back in the age of paper, in 1986, professor James Beniger, then at Harvard, produced a useful chart on the civilian labor force of the United States. It showed how the bulk of American workers had moved during the past two centuries from working […]
Article · January 6, 2010 by Eric Newton
When the Berlin Wall fell, optimists happily predicted ‘the end of history.’ The’post-Cold War world would see unparalleled freedom, with a wave of media development unrivaled in human history. Well, it didn’t happen that way. The world remains an erratic, unsure place, by both press freedom and media development measures. 2009 sometimes looks suspiciously like […]
Article · December 14, 2009 by Eric Newton
Remarks at Federal Trade Commission hearing, Dec. 2, 2009 Thank you, Mr. Chairman and FTC staff, for this important workshop. I’d like to talk about Cicero. When Cicero was sent to the provinces, he was quite unhappy with the commercial news packets coming from Rome. He wrote back complaining that what he needed to know […]
Article · December 2, 2009 by Eric Newton
The International Center for Journalists’celebrated 25 years of advancing quality journalism worldwide — through the’training of more than 60,000 journalists –‘ at its’Awards Dinner last week in Washington, DC. Highlights: The New York Times’ David Rohde spoke of the Taliban’s strongholds’in Pakistan and Afghanistan and what this means for U.S. policy.’ Knight International Journalism Award […]
Article · November 18, 2009 by Eric Newton
From Marly Falcon, Knight Foundation contributing blogger: When the’Fort Hood shootings were reported last week, The Texas Tribune stood back while other publications rushed to the scene. The’New York Times‘explained that it wasn’t that the incident lacked’interest to the journalists at the new web site.’It’just did not meet the criteria for the kind of news […]
Article · November 9, 2009 by Eric Newton