Director's Notes: Learning More About Journalism

• Reinvention Trends. The Project for Excellence in Journalism's annual "State of the News Media" spots six major trend lines for reinventing the news media:

(1) The unbundling of news seems increasingly central to the future of journalism.
(2) The future of new and old media are tied together.
(3) There is a mistaken notion that news media are shrinking.
(4) Technology is further shifting power to newsmakers, including their ability to control the initial account of the events.
(5) News organizations must define their relationship to the growing ranks of self-interested information providers.
(6) When it comes to audience numbers online, traditional media content still prevails, which means the cutbacks in old media heavily impact what the public is learning through the new.

• In response, PoynterOnline's Bill Mitchell wonders "just what sort of commercial and editorial reinvention will it take to close the gap between the shrinking capacity of legacy news operations to deliver the news we need and the still halting initiatives of start-ups hoping to take their place."  
• Suggested Read. Former McCormick Foundation board member Jack Fuller will explore how journalism lost its way in a new book scheduled for release in May.  The University of Chicago Press says "What is Happening to News: The Information Explosion and the Crisis in Journalism" locates the surprising sources of change where no one has thought to look before.  Fuller traces journalism's ragged retreat from its great traditions to a collision between a revolutionary new information age and a human brain that is still wired for the threats faced by our prehistoric ancestors. In addition to offering "unprecedented insight," the UCPress publicity machine says Fuller's book tells "how journalists can adapt to this new environment while still providing the information necessary to a functioning democracy.
• Quote of the week.  "I hope we never live to see the day when a thing is as bad as some our newspapers make it." -Will Rogers