Is this the future of news?

News junkies around the Bay Area have been worried about the future of the leading newspapers such as the S.F. Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News as their circulation dwindles. Now comes word from the N.Y. Times that a brand new nonprofit news source for the Bay Area will appear within months. The new, as yet nameless, source will have a website staffed by professional journalists and has the backing of local investors as well as the Berkeley School of Journalism. Readers who love the feel and smell of a newspaper may worry that this development will hasten the end of print journalism, but there's no question that the media world is changing. With all that is going on in the region, the country and the world, we need all the reliable news we can get. Civic-minded citizens will be watching to see whether this new option meets at least some of our needs.

New way to follow election

Every conflict in recent years has brought a new media format into its own. Just as the 1991 Iraq war made CNN famous, so the Iranian election and the turmoil that followed has brought www.twitter.com into its own. The tweets from Iran and from Iranian sympathizers around the world has provided a running commentary on what is going on inthe country at a time when mainstream media are having difficulty getting and sending information. Take a look at these images sent through a tweet to thousands of people around the world. While Iranian officials appear to be trying to close down access to cell phones and the Internet people are still managing to send out tweets, changing their location and access to avoid detection. Whatever happens next, people around the world have been alerted to the power of twitter and the media landscape has changed once again.

A winning team

The TV news shows these last few days have given a lot of time to a few cruel and vicious words spoken by radio host Don Imus referring to the Rutgers University Women's Basketball Team. Other media men (and all the ones I saw were all men) responded by discussing whether the words could be forgiven, whether suspension or firing was the appropriate punishment--unbelievably enough there were differences of opinion on that. It wasn't until the team members themselves appeared on the news that we heard a dignified and heartfelt response to the irresponsible attack. The women spoke quietly and told of their feelings--putting to shame all the trivial media chatter. These young women, and others like them, are the future leaders of the country. We in the League try our best to get them involved in the public arena where they will be empowered to create a world where no one listens to silly old men who think causing pain to others can be funny.