Video Archives - “Blogging and the New Public Intellectual – A Conversation with Jay Rosen and Megan Garber” (2013)

October 27, 2013: “Blogging and the New Public Intellectual – A Conversation with Jay Rosen and Megan Garber”

Participants:

-- Roger Berkowitz, Associate Professor of Political Studies and Human Rights and Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and the Humanities, Bard College.
-- Walter Russell Mead, James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and the Humanities, Bard College.
-- Jay Rosen, Professor of Journalism, NYU.
-- Megan Garber, media critic and staff writer, The Atlantic.

Roger Berkowitz and Walter Russell Mead of Bard College have a discussion with Jay Rosen and Megan Garber about the state of journalism today.

[caption id="attachment_14313" align="alignleft" width="200"] Jay Rosen[/caption]

Rosen begins the discussion by painting a general picture of what the modern-day journalist is like. In his mind, the journalist’s province lies somewhere between an academic’s concern with the past and the reporter’s concern with the present. He points to the era of Thomas Paine as a potential model for understanding the present and future of journalism as a form of political participation undertaken by informed citizens. However, in our time, the Internet has transformed journalism, providing a public platform to anyone with anything to say—even if they have only one thing to say and are not equipped equipped to say it.

Garber focuses in on the publication of both “hard” and “soft” stories on single news venues. She talks about the “high-low approach” whereby a website covers both trivial, fun topics as well as issues of greater gravity. Mead asks her at one point about how she selects what she wishes to investigate, which prompts Garber to elaborate further on the balance between what’s fun and what’s important.

[caption id="attachment_14311" align="alignright" width="200"] Megan Garber[/caption]

Leading off of Garber’s commends, Mead criticizes the way some worthwhile stories in the press get washed out by a deluge of reports that don’t merit as much attention. He points to the coverage of the budget crisis in Congress at the time, which overshadowed news of a significant shift in Sino-Japanese relations. Mead thinks that the foreign policy story, with potentially enormous ramifications for the coming century, received less than adequate treatment because the press is easily led into runaway coverage by a media-savvy Washington establishment. There are some stories, he remarks, that are made for the press. These press-ready events then overshadow more organically played-out stories.

For readers interested in the issue of public truth-telling, a matter close to Arendt’s heart, this is a discussion that provides insight into the current discourse surrounding journalism and the practice of public reporting.

Analysis by Dan Perlman

You can watch the full conversation below:

Blogging and the New Public Intellectual- - A Conversation with Jay Rosen and Megan Garber from Hannah Arendt Center on Vimeo.