Last week, I participated in a panel discussion and public forum (video now available) sponsored by the New England News Forum on the subject of media, journalism and trustworthiness. I was the “citizen journalist” on board. My fellow panelists were Springfield Republican publisher Larry McDermott, Columbia Journalism Review founder James Boylan, and UMass journalism professor and Pulitzer Prize winner Madeleine Blais.
A small group attended to listen and participate, including other journalists, academics, officials and interested residents. Local blogger Tish Grier assisted by helping organizer Bill Densmore film the proceedings. Bay Path College communications professor Christian Nelson introduced himself and invited me to come speak to a class of his in the fall, something I responded I am always happy to do, as I love interacting with students. David Tebaldi of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities (a grant funder of the NENF) was there to pose a couple of compelling questions when McDermott mentioned reading my blog avidly and wishing he had that content in his newspaper.
Springfield residents Sheila McElwaine and Jeremy Cole were there and told McDermott how repetitive and lacking the local news in the Republican seems from their perspective. Publisher Jeff Potter attended and was able to share a few words about his bi-weekly publication, the Shelburne Falls Independent, on the topic of needing better local coverage. Former MassLive.com editor and now Advance Internet site supervisor Scott Brodeur attended as well, remaining quiet but in attentive listening mode, similar to attendee Allan Blair, president and CEO of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council.
Republican reporter Michael McAuliffe sat silently during the event, but wrote about it for the next day’s paper. Greenfield-based writer Andrew Varnon wrote a somewhat more revealing piece for his blog about how the evening went from his point of view. For excerpts from Varnon’s blog, and comments from others, and further discussion, go here, and also watch the video over on the NENF blog.
