Tag Archives: journalism

Journalism needs a better metaphor

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Robert Basil

NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen writes that “exposure” is a “metaphor that increasingly misleads. I refer to the image of ‘exposure’ as a description of what the press does, should do, or isn’t doing well enough. To expose wrongdoing, incompetence, … Continue reading →

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“The Professional Culture of the Press”

Posted on December 24, 2019 by Robert Basil

NYU Journalism professor and media critic Jay Rosen* writes that “Not in personal but in public life, 2019 has been the most bleak and depressing year I have lived through of my 63. A few tiny green shoots in a … Continue reading →

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The Arch Obit

Posted on June 20, 2019 by Robert Basil

Obituaries must be charming. When a writer conveys the deceased subject’s wicked faults yet still elicits empathy from the reader, the reader has been charmed into a kind of forgiveness for the dead. When the writer seeks to elicit no … Continue reading →

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Media theorist Jay Rosen’s forlorn list

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Robert Basil

A current list of my top problems in pressthink, April 2019. Updated from time to time. Ranked by urgency. 1. Absent some kind of creative intervention, 2020 campaign coverage looks like it will be the same as it ever was. Who’s … Continue reading →

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Pretentiousness done right

Posted on February 19, 2019 by Robert Basil

God bless Janet Malcolm. What books are on your nightstand? I take it you mean the imaginary Doric column that supports a teetering pile of current and old books that the interviewee wants to bring to the reader’s attention. My … Continue reading →

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Editors are there for you.

Posted on June 16, 2018 by Robert Basil

This note appears in Seymour Hersh’s Reporter: A Memoir.  The last seven words are utterly splendid. Here is a congenial interview with Hersh by Christian Lorentzen.

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News Literacy 2018

Posted on May 30, 2018 by Robert Basil

Jay Rosen’s NYU School of Journalism’s News Literacy Project is an amazing service to all of us. The links and their analyses give us environmental scans and some helpful dives. As advertising revenue continues to decline, newsrooms are aggressively developing different … Continue reading →

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Update

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Robert Basil

The Atlantic has fired Kevin Williamson. Odd, though, that the publisher cited workplace-environment concerns as the impetus rather than the “especially violent belief” itself: The top editor emphasized that Williamson’s firing was not a result of his being anti-abortion—a common … Continue reading →

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The New York Times – subscription cancelled

Posted on March 31, 2018 by Robert Basil

Very few times in my life have I not believed my eyes. And the news on these occasions was never good. This morning I had such an experience, reading a column in the New York Times by Bret Stephens, who … Continue reading →

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News Literacy 2017 – a guide

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Robert Basil

With several of his graduate students NYU Journalism Professor Jay Rosen has just published the second annual “What’s Changing in Journalism” guide, which “depicts trends that are influencing the business now, and are still new enough that even experienced journalists may not … Continue reading →

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