Journalism was in crisis well before COVID, the recent uprisings against racism, and the deep recession. Now, we are facing a blank-slate moment. Much is being lost, but that also means there are huge opportunities to think fresh and rebuild the news industry from scratch. What should we keep and what should we ditch? Who should tell our stories and what should those stories be? How can we hold our media institutions accountable?

Join us for a series of conversations to tackle these questions. We‘ll hear from some of the most urgent voices in media to talk about where journalism goes next.

Speakers include:

• Emily Bell, founding director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism
• Maria Bustillos, founding editor, Popula
• Sewell Chan, editorial page editor, The Los Angeles Times
• Susan Chira, editor in chief, The Marshall Project
• Jelani Cobb, staff writer, The New Yorker, Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University
• Steve Coll, dean, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
• Bill Grueskin, professor, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
• Cierra Hinton, publisher, Scalawag
• Ashton Lattimore, editor in chief, Prism
• Kyle Pope, editor and publisher, Columbia Journalism Review
• Ben Smith, media columnist, The New York Times
• Susan Smith Richardson, chief executive officer, Center for Public Integrity
• Duy Linh Tu, documentarian, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
• Ethan Zuckerman, professor, co-founder Global Voices

SCHEDULE

Day 1: Assessing a journalism that doesn’t work

Sept. 15, 2 pm - 4 pm

For the last four years, and especially the last three months, it has been painfully clear that a lot of what passes for news is failing. Both sides are being presented when only one is credible. Rank partisanship has replaced fair-mindedness. A lack of newsroom diversity has made the coverage of race inadequate. The effects of social media have decimated the news attention span. How did we get here? What has to be changed, or dismantled, in response?

Introduction and Greeting: Steve Coll, Columbia Journalism School

2 pm — The Failure of News

• Moderator: Kyle Pope, The Columbia Journalism Review
• Maria Bustillos, Popula
• Ben Smith, The New York Times

3 pm — Who Is Journalism For?

• Moderator: Susan Smith-Richardson, Center for Public Integrity
• Sewell Chan, The Los Angeles Times
• Bettina Chang, City Bureau
• Andrea Valdez, The 19th

Day 2: Remaking the news: where we go from here

Sept. 16, 2 pm - 4 pm

Acknowledging what's wrong with journalism opens the next, critical conversation: how do we fix it? The status quo is already being abandoned. Now the job is to fill the void. What will the new journalism look like? How will it be structured? How can we shape it? What are the new touchstones we can help create?

2pm — Rebuilding From the Ground Up

• Moderator: Emily Bell, Tow Center for Digital Journalism
• Duy Linh Tu, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
• Cierra Hinton, Scalawag
• Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices

3pm — Holding the News Accountable

• Moderator: Jelani Cobb, Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights
• Bill Grueskin, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
• Ashton Lattimore, Prism
• Susan Chira, The Marshall Project