Jay Rosen critiques Columbia University's dean search

Jay Rosen writes about Columbia University's search for a new journalism dean. Rosen, the New York University journalism chair, is one of the leading civic journalism scholars.

Civic journalism naysayer

Here's a quote from a University of Missouri journalism professor, in the Chicago Reader "I'm pretty crotchety about things like civic journalism, which I see as adding up to people who can't be adults and can't treat their readers as adults. `Don't print it unless it's positive. Don't print it unless it has a constructive effect on the community.' It's caretaking the community through journalism. But that's not really journalism, and it doesn't help educate people about making wise decisions in a democracy.

Cool new multimedia obit
Talk about connecting with readers. Readership studies show that successful handling of obits goes a long ways toward making readers satisfied with their newspaper. Check out the multimedia link with this feature obituary, which appeared in a zoned section of The Spokesman-Review. In case you can't download the package, there's audio of the widow accompanying a seven-picture slide show of family photos. Anyone else doing this kind of thing out there? Let me know.