Upcoming Symposium to Discuss “New Media, Enduring Values”

Four Projects Studying Related Journalism Principles to Be Announced

Bill Kovach
Bill Kovach
Tom Rosenstiel
Tom Rosenstiel

Columbia, Mo. (Sept. 26, 2006) — The Missouri School of Journalism and the Committee of Concerned Journalists will commemorate their alliance at an upcoming symposium at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The theme of the event – the 2006 Curtis B. Hurley Symposium – will be “New Media, Enduring Values.” It will be held from 9-11 a.m., Tuesday, Oct. 17, with a continental breakfast served at 8:30 a.m.

The new partners – the world’s first journalism school and a coalition of more than 9,000 journalists worldwide – will announce projects that exhibit the kind of work their partnership makes possible. All are designed to point toward promising ways in which journalism’s most important values can be translated, and made even more effective, in the digital world.

“All these projects are aimed at answering the difficult question on so many minds today: How do we ensure that those principles that make journalism indispensable will survive and even thrive in the digital world?” said Geneva Overholser, who holds the Hurley chair at the School.

Martin Kaiser
Martin Kaiser
William Buzenberg
William Buzenberg
Merrill Brown
Merrill Brown

Three of the four projects bring alive principles drawn from the book, Elements of Journalism, by CCJ’s Bill Kovach, the founding director and chairman, and Tom Rosenstiel, vice chairman.

  • A partnership with Minnesota Public Radio will focus on providing a forum for public criticism and compromise. MPR’s William E. Buzenberg, senior vice president for news, and Michael Skoler, director of the “Public Insight Journalism” program, will present this project at the symposium.
  • The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is working with CCJ and the School on how to bring journalism’s discipline of verification alive in new and richer ways on the Web. The paper’s editor, Martin Kaiser, will speak on this project at the symposium.
  • WHO-TV, the NBC affiliate in Des Moines, is collaborating on a project aimed at making significant and important news interesting and engaging on the Web. News Director Rod Peterson will share news of this project.

The fourth project is a cooperative venture between the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute and a New York City consulting group. Pam Johnson, the Institute’s executive director, and Merrill Brown, new media consultant, will discuss online local news strategies emerging in their joint work.

Michael Skoler
Michael Skoler
Rod Peterson
Rod Peterson

Findings from the four studies will be presented at a future symposium.

Others who will participate in the symposium discussion include:

  • Dean Mills, dean of the School,
  • Jeffrey Dvorkin, CCJ executive director and the Goldenson Chair in Community Broadcasting at the School,
  • Esther Thorson, director of research at the Reynolds Journalism Institute and associate dean of graduate studies and research at the School, and
  • Tom Rosenstiel, who has also served as director of CCJ.
  • Walter Dean, CCJ broadcast training director.

The National Press Club’s Professional Development Committee also sponsors the symposium. To register for the event, please contact Billie Dukes; 573-882-1908.

The CCJ-Missouri Journalism alliance was announced in October 2005 when the Knight Foundation awarded a $2.28 million grant to the School and CCJ. The funds will allow CCJ to update and expand its training activities using the School’s nationally recognized research capabilities. The Reynolds Journalism Institute is an emerging center at the School that will be a nucleus of collaborative innovation, research and demonstration of new technologies and processes that improve journalism. The Institute was made possible by a $31 million gift from the Las Vegas-based Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, the largest private donation ever to the University of Missouri.


New Media, Enduring Values
The 2006 Curtis B. Hurley Symposium
Geneva Overholser, Chair
How can we ensure that journalistic principles are translated onto new digital platforms? The Missouri School of Journalism, Committee of Concerned Journalists and Reynolds Journalism Institute will unveil four projects designed to provide answers.

    • Time: 8:30 a.m. Continental Breakfast; 9-11 a.m., Symposium
    • Date: Tuesday, Oct. 17
    • Location: National Press Club, 14th and F Streets, Washington, D.C.

Sponsored by the Missouri School of Journalism, the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, the Committee of Concerned Journalists and the Professional Development Committee of the National Press Club. To RSVP, contact Billie Dukes; 573-882-1908.

Updated: April 13, 2020

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