Incubating new economic models for journalism.
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The Pentagon Papers helped shape legal and ethical standards for journalistic truth-telling on matters of top secret government affairs. Openness, in the eyes of the public and the courts, would usually prevail over government secrecy, shifting power from politicians back to citizens and news organizations. That balance of power is taking on a renewed significance today in the wake of Reality Winner’s alleged recent national security leak, prosecution of members of the press and anti-press and anti-leak rhetoric by the Trump administration.
Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea news organizations face new challenges online as their governments now include internet activity in their regulatory structures. What used to be a niche for independent media has instead become a new battleground for freedom of expression.
Blogs
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“Dropped and Dismissed,” an investigation into child sexual abuse co-produced by the Workshop, just won an Edward R. Murrow award for News Documentary.
Free speech controversies on college campuses nationwide show some experts that students need education about First Amendment protections earlier and often, according to a panel of academic and free speech authorities who spoke Wednesday afternoon at the Newseum.
In preparation for the September premiere of PBS’s new documentary series on the Vietnam War, directors Ken Burns and Lynn Novick talked Monday night at the Newseum about the importance of both press freedom and finding humanity during one of America’s darkest and most divisive wars.
Fake news has the potential to damage both mainstream media and the public.
That was the message at a June 12 National Press Club event titled “Is Seeing Still Believing,” which featured Santiago Lyon, who works with the World Press Photo Foundation, and Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan.
“I feel the term has become weaponized,” Sullivan told the crowd of two dozen about fake news.
New York Times CEO Mark Thompson told CNBC, the Trump administration has provided the newspaper with “rocket fuel in the subscription business.” True, for those who work for a cable news channel or one of the country’s top newspapers. But for the newspaper industry as a whole, the Pew Center’s annual media report doesn’t offer much comfort because circulation industry-wide remained mired in a decades-long decline.
Partners
We publish online and in print, often teaming up with other news organizations. We're working now on a new program with FRONTLINE producers, to air later in the year, and on the "Years of Living Dangerously," a series on climate change that has begun airing on Showtime. A story last year on the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention centers was co-published with The New York Times. Our updates to our long-running BankTracker project, in which you can view the financial health of every bank and credit union in the country, have been published with msnbc.com, now nbcnews.com, and we co-published stories in our What Went Wrong series on the economy with The Philadelphia Inquirer and New America Media. Our graduate students are working as researchers with Washington Post reporters, and our new senior editor is a member of the Post's investigative team. Learn more on our partners page.
Projects
Profiles of notable journalists and their stories of key moments in U.S. history in the last 50 years can be found on the Investigating Power site. See Workshop Executive Editor Charles Lewis' latest video interviews as well as historic footage and timelines. You can also read more about the project and why we documented these groundbreaking examples of original, investigative journalism that helped shape or change public perceptions on key issues of our time, from civil rights to Iraq, here.
