Media Musings

A blog for students and stalkers of Brian Steffen, centering on issues of concern in media studies.

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Location: Indianola, Iowa, United States

Hello all... I'm a professor of communication studies at Simpson College and a junkie of all things media. I'm blogging on life on the faculty at Simpson and working with some of the best young future professionals in the world.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Keeping the Register Honest

National Public Radio has a new audio report on Des Moines resident Ralph Gross, who was invited to serve on the Des Moines Register's Reader Advisory Board and wound up being a thorn in the newspaper management's side. Gross used his spot on the Register's board to push the idea that the newspaper should be a serious journalistic product and not a funnel for profits for owner Gannett Inc.

This isn't the first time Gross has gotten publicity for pushing on management to do more journalism and less business. Columbia Journalism Review gave him space last fall to talk about the questions he raises: "Who will embrace their civic responsibility to raise awareness on this issue? In markets with no competition, like Des Moines, what are the options for doing so? And if the answer is no one and none, say so and let’s move on to create a new information delivery system for this democracy, because the current one is dying."

The NPR story runs about seven minutes, and you'll need Real Audio (a free download) to listen to it.

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