USC Annenberg Report Details Growing Philanthropic Support for Journalism
Philanthropic foundations are taking unprecedented steps to address
the crisis in journalism and "serve as a firewall against the
disappearance of critical news and information," according to a new
report from the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy (CCLP) at
the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for
Communication.
The report, "Philanthropic Foundations: Growing Funders of the News"
is authored by David Westphal, a CCLP senior fellow and former
Washington editor for McClatchy Newspapers. It is available on the CCLP
website, www.communicationleadership.org. Printed copies are available
by writing commlead@usc.edu.
Leaders from philanthropic foundations, journalism, education and
non-profit organizations were interviewed for the report, which follows
up on a major meeting convened in 2008 by Geoffrey Cowan, dean emeritus
of the USC Annenberg School and CCLP director, Alex Jones, director of
the Shorenstein Center at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and
Orville Schell, former dean of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of
Journalism and a CCLP senior fellow.
"When we had the meeting last year, we saw a need," says Cowan. "But
now we're in a state of desperation. The collapse of the traditional
economic model has increased both the need for nonprofit journalism,
and also the receptivity toward it."
"I think it's safe to say there's a growing understanding you can't
run a democracy without a free flow of information," says Alberto
Ibarguen, president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation, who attended the 2008 meeting and was interviewed for the
report. He cites growing interest of community foundations in
supporting journalism as an important development.
"We're extremely excited about the possibilities here," he says.
"Community foundations have billions and billions at their disposal. We
think more and more of them are going to find that information has
become one of their community's core needs."
Westphal will present research from this report, along with early
findings from a new Carnegie Corporation-sponsored study on the role of
government in supporting news and information, at the annual convention
of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
in Boston in August.
CCLP will continue to explore related developments, including
philanthropic support for ethnic media, as part of its ongoing research
agenda.
Source: University of Southern California
CONTACT: Geoffrey Baum of the University of Southern California,
+1-213-840-3870
Web Site:
http://www.annenberg.usc.edu/
http://www.communicationleadership.org/
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