Keynote address March 9, 2012 to the Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference at New York University.

1. The present situation in the
American Press:
A sketch for historians
Jay Rosen, NYU @jayrosen_nyu
#presssitch

2. I need you to lift and separate:
Media
Journalism
The Press

3. The underlying media system
is different from…
The evolving practice of journalism
which is different from…
The American press: an institution

4. The underlying media system:
The distribution and production
networks writ large. The wires and
tubes, means and platforms
through which the many streams of
modern “communications” flow.

5. The social practice of journalism…
Can result in a market good, a
public good, or a political “good.”
“Runs” on the media system we
are actually using. Thus: evolves.

6. The American press
An institution created when the
country was created to improve
the chances that republican
government could work here

7. The American press
Should be kept in a 300 year
viewing frame: Tom Paine to
Arianna Huffington and her heirs

8. Media
Journalism
The Press
_________
The Present Situation

9. Changes in the underlying media
system…

10. are disrupting the economy of
news production…

11. this is destabilizing the practice of
journalism…

12. and releasing a flood of
professional anxiety…

13. while sending a current of renewal
through the American press….

14. (Jay’s view…)
which is good because it needed
that!

15. Keynote deliverable:
The present situation in a
sentence…

16. Changes in the underlying media
system are disrupting the economy
of news production, destabilizing
the practice of
journalism, releasing a flood of
professional anxiety, and sending a
current of renewal through the
American press.

17. These changes are still in motion.
Their outcome is highly in doubt.
They are bringing destruction and
misery as well as new possibility to
journalism.

18. News and journalism are not the
only “stack” that runs on the media
system’s circuitry…
Book publishing
The music business
Consumer photography

19. Final slide! The present situation in
the American press is dominated
by a single unsolved problem.
What sort of enterprise can best
sustain serious work, and itself, in
the difficult years ahead?