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Media Matters: The Future of News

Friday, April 7, 2017

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Session Description

Many factors are weakening democratic values around the globe, and including profound changes in the media landscape. How do we preserve the basic infrastructure of democracy with a solvent and independent media at risk? We’ll take stock of the forces pushing this erosion, and explore the emerging technologies, business models, and government actions that impact media and journalism. We’ll hear from seasoned journalists, media executives, and commentators about both the threats and the promising innovations they see on the horizon.


Speaker(s):
  • Executive Editor, National Public Radio
    Edith Chapin is the Vice President and Executive Editor of NPR News. In that role she resumes responsibility for the NPR newsroom, setting daily news priorities, and directing all of NPR's news-gathering teams. She has full authority to work across the newsroom to ensure that desks, shows and digital teams are rowing in the same direction on major stories and coverage, so that NPR can be consistent and collaborative in our approach to news on all of our platforms. From 2017-2019 she led NPR's efforts to build a collaborative journalism network with NPR Member stations. When Chapin was named Executive Editor in 2015 she was charged with overseeing all desks and reporters, and helping to set the agenda for the entire News division. Previously, Chapin was the senior supervising editor of NPR's International Desk. She managed a team of correspondents based outside the United States committed to bringing listeners dynamic stories of the world's people, politics, economy, and culture. Prior to joining NPR in 2012, Chapin spent 25 years at CNN and worked her way up from intern, to bureau chief to vice president. Most recently, Chapin was the Vice President and Deputy Bureau Chief of CNN's Washington, D.C. bureau, where her strategic editorial and management responsibility included oversight of the 2009 presidential transition coverage and daily coverage of the White House and Capitol Hill. Chapin contributed to Covering Catastrophe (Bonus Books, 2002), a book recounting the events of 9/11 in an oral history format. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations sits on the board of The Masters School. She holds a Bachelor of Science in journalism from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
  • Global education editor, Financial Times
    Andrew Jack is global education editor for the Financial Times, writing on educational issues around the world and editorial lead for the free FT schools programme (www.ft.com/schoolsarefree). He was previously head of curated content, deputy editor of the big read section, pharmaceuticals correspondent, and a foreign correspondent in France and Russia. He is author of "Inside Putin's Russia" and "The French Exception"
  • EVP Product & Tech; Editor, Innovation/Strategy, The New York Times
    Kinsey Wilson is the lead digital officer for The New York Times. Operating at the nexus of news and business, he holds dual masthead titles as Editor for Innovation and Strategy and Executive Vice President for Product and Technology. In those roles, he oversees the work of more than 900 technologists, designers, product managers and editors responsible for shaping the company’s digital strategy and for creating products that give expression to New York Times journalism. Widely heralded for the excellence of its digital report, The Times has seen its audience grow to over 100 million monthly unique users and more than 1.7 million paying digital subscribers. Wilson joined The Times in February 2015 after six years in senior leadership positions at NPR. As EVP and Chief Content Officer from 2012 through 2014 he oversaw NPR’s worldwide news gathering, programming and digital operations. Under his leadership, NPR became known as a leading digital innovator, pioneering new forms of listening including NPR One, a popular one-touch digital platform. During that time, NPR’s journalism also was recognized with major awards including the duPont-Columbia, Peabody and Emmy awards. Before being named Chief Content Officer, Wilson was NPR’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Media. From 2000 to 2008, Wilson was Editor-in-Chief of usatoday.com and later Executive Editor of USA TODAY, where he helped define the standards for online journalism through coverage of major news events including the 2000 presidential election, the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, the Iraq War, and Hurricane Katrina. Wilson sits on the board of trustees of the Poynter Institute. He was an early leader of the Online News Association and president of the organization in 2007. And he has served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes in journalism. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago.
  • Editor-in-Chief, Guardian News & Media, Guardian, The
    Katharine Viner is editor-in-chief of the Guardian, a position she has held since June 2015. She joined the Guardian as a writer in 1997. She was appointed deputy editor of the Guardian in 2008; launched the award-winning Guardian Australia in 2013; and was also editor of Guardian US, based in New York. Katharine gave the 2013 AN Smith lecture in journalism at the University of Melbourne, The Rise of the Reader, discussing journalism in the age of the open web, and a speech on Truth and Reality in a Hyper-Connected World as part of the Oxford University Women of Achievement Lecture Series in May 2016.
  • Founder and President, Pat Mitchell Media
    Pat Mitchell is a lifelong advocate for women and girls. At every step of her career, Mitchell has broken new ground for women, leveraging the power of media as a journalist, an Emmy award-winning and Oscar-nominated producer to tell women’s stories and increase the representation of women onscreen and off. Transitioning to an executive role, she became the president of CNN Productions, and the first woman president and CEO of PBS and the Paley Center for Media. Today, her commitment to connect and strengthen a global community of women leaders continues as a conference curator, advisor and mentor. In partnership with TED, Mitchell launched TEDWomen in 2010 and is its editorial director, curator and host. She is also a speaker and curator for the annual Women Working for the World forum in Bogota, Colombia, the Her Village conference in Beijing, and co-chairs the US board of Women of the World (WOW). She partners with the Rockefeller Foundation to curate, convene and host Connected Women Leaders (CWL) forums, focused on collective problem solving among women leaders in government and civil society. In 2014, the Women’s Media Center honored Mitchell with its first-annual Lifetime Achievement Award, now named in her honor to commend other women whose media careers advance the representation of women. Recognized by Hollywood Reporter as one of the most powerful women in media, Fast Company’s “League of Extraordinary Women” and Huffington Post’s list of “Powerful Women Over 50,” Mitchell also received the Sandra Day O'Connor Award for Leadership. She was a contributor to Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership, and wrote the introduction to the book and museum exhibition, 130 Women of Impact in 30 Countries. In 2016, she received a Congressional appointment to The American Museum of Women’s History Advisory Council, and in 2019 was named to the Gender Equality Top 100 list of women leaders by Apolitical. Mitchell is active with many nonprofit organizations, serving as the chair of the boards of the Sundance Institute and the Women’s Media Center. She is a founding member of the VDAY movement and on the boards of the Skoll Foundation and the Acumen Fund. She is also an advisor to Participant Media and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mitchell is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia and holds a master's degree in English literature and several honorary doctorate degrees. She is the author of Becoming a Dangerous Woman: Embracing Risk to Change the World. She and her husband, Scott Seydel, live in Atlanta and have six children and 13 grandchildren.

Time & Location

Time:
10:00 AM - 11:15 AM, Friday, April 7, 2017
Location:
Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre