Tag: media

Hoping a new media sensitivity might emerge from the Newtown tragedy

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Soon after tragedy struck a sleepy New England town more than one year ago, residents of Newtown, Ct., vowed the place they called home would be an epicenter for change. There needed to be changes in gun laws, some cried out. Others advocated for a national movement to increase school security. A need for better mental health counseling became a topic of conversation in homes and coffee shops among the town’s 26,000 residents. More subtle and in the undertones, there also were pleas for Newtown to be the epicenter of change in how stories of mass shootings and grief are covered.

Beacon-KWMU merger: Journalism re-imagined

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BY JAN SCHAFFER / When the St. Louis Beacon and St. Louis Public Radio cinched their deal to merge their two newsrooms in December, they stepped right into the front lines of how old and new media are re-imagining journalism. The combined news organization (http://news.stlpublicradio.org), which will have a hefty three dozen-plus editorial employees, promises not only to alter the nature of journalism in St. Louis, but it also will chart new pathways for media entrepreneurs around the country exploring ways to make their startups sustainable.

TV station owes viewers apology for story missteps

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No other way to put it: St. Louis television station KSDK (Channel 5) really messed up in their attempt to expose school security flaws. On Jan. 16, Channel 5 sent people to five area schools to check on security. One of them was Kirkwood High School. The Channel 5 staffer was able to get in to the school unchallenged. He did, in fact, uncover what appears to be several flaws in the Kirkwood system.

The News on Jan. 10: Christie outweighs other scandals

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In every newspaper, on every cable news channel and on news websites, the “bridge scandal” swirling around New Jersey governor and potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie has been getting top billing. His administration, according to a Page 1 story in the New York Times, “ordered revenge closings of traffic lanes at the George Washington Bridge.” That’s bad, all right, especially since it impeded medical emergency vehicles trapped in the ensuing traffic jams and may have contributed to the death of one person.