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Communications and Society Program

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Recommended Reading on Journalism & Society

Below is a selected list of classic and contemporary writing and speeches on the role of journalism in democratic society. Please note that this list is provided for academic purposes. The Aspen Institute does not necessarily support or endorse the perspectives of the authors.

Jump to:
  1. The State of American Journalism
  2. Trends in Journalism, Technology & Society
  3. Transparency in the News Media (including self-coverage and correction, self-censorsip)
  4. Leadership and the News Media
  5. Thoughts on Liberty and Security
  6. The Public's Need to Know
  7. Journalism and the New Imperatives of Homeland Security
  8. Patriotism
  9. Online Resources

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The State of American Journalism:

Trends in Journalism, Technology & Society

Transparency in the News Media

Thoughts on Leadership and the News Media

  • Peter C. Goldmark, Jr., “Setting the Testbed for Journalistic Values,” keynote speech delivered
    to the Aspen Institute Conference on Journalism and Society, Aspen, Colorado, August 23, 2000.  Reprinted in Peter C. Goldmark, Jr. and David Bollier, Old Values, New World: Harnessing the
    Legacy of Independent Journalism for the Future    , Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute, 2001.  Available online at: Setting the Testbed for Journalistic Values,” keynote speech delivered

Thoughts on Liberty and Security:

The Public’s Need to Know:

  • Jack Nelson, “Government Secrecy: What Leaks are Good Leaks?” Los Angeles Times, 5 January 2003: M3 (Opinion).
  • Justice Potter Stewart, concurring opinion in New York Times v. United States, 1971 reprinted in T. Baron Carter, et al, The First Amendment and the Fourth Estate, 4th ed., (Westbury, N.Y.: The Foundation Press, 1988).
  • Michael Hurt, “Leaking National Security Secrets: Effects on Security and Measures to Mitigate,” National Security Studies Quarterly, Autumn 2001: vol. VII, no. 4: 29-33.
  • Harold Evans, “Secrecy vs. The Story,” in Reporting in the Time of Conflict, an essay published by Newseum. Available at: http://www.newseum.org/warstories/essay/secrecy.htm
  • “Deriving Lessons from Case Studies on Post 9/11 News Coverage " by Public's Need to Know in a Post 9/11 Era Working Group. The Century Foundation, 18 July 2002. Available at http://www.homelandsec.org/WGneed/CaseStudies/full.pdf.
  • Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, “What is Journalism For?” in The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Except, (New York: Crown Publishers, 2001).
  • Victoria Clarke, “The Relationship After Sept. 11: An Administration View,” in The Military, The Media and The Administration: An Irregular Triangle, ed. Nancy Ethiel (Chicago: McCormick Tribune Foundation, 2002).

Journalism and the New Imperatives of Homeland Security:

  • Analysis for the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Title II—Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection, available on the White House website at www.whitehouse.gov/deptofhomalend/analysis/title2.html.
  • Genevieve J. Knezo, “’Sensitive But Unclassified’ and Other Federal Security Controls on Scientific and Technical Information: History and Current Controversy,” Congressional Research Service, 2 April 2003.
  • The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, “Homeland Security proposes broad infrastructure secrecy rules,” Washington, D.C. , news media update, available at www.rcfp.org/news/2003/0417proced.html.
  • Randy Atkins, “The News Media Could Be Our Weakest Link,” The Washington Post, 26 January 2003: B3.
  • The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Homefront Confidential, 3rd edition, white paper, March 2003. Available at www.rcfp.org/homefrontconfidential.

Patriotism:

Online Resources: