October 29, 2007

Interview with Chuck Lewis, of the Fund for Independence in Journalism

Filed under: General — miren @ 9:07 am

Q&A: ‘If Journalism Becomes Further Marginalised, Look Out, World…’
Interview with Chuck Lewis, Fund for Independence in Journalism

Chuck Lewis

ROME, Oct 29 (IPS) – Shrinking newsrooms, declining sales and audiences, vanishing foreign correspondents, concentration of ownership, shrivelling papers…is journalism imploding? Can independent journalism survive?

“Yes,” says Chuck Lewis, founder of the Centre for Public Integrity, and one of the most respected voices in journalism today. And the answer is non-profit journalism.

Lewis is a former producer of the CBS show 60 Minutes, and a journalist-in-residence at American University in Washington. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Columbia Journalism Review, The Nation, and many other publications. A pioneer of the non-profit model, Lewis speaks with Miren Gutierrez, IPS Editor-in-Chief about the future of journalism.

IPS: So, the news is that in-depth, independent journalism may endure…But investigative reporting is expensive, it could be risky too. Who will pay for it?

Chuck Lewis: Civic-minded, wealthy individuals who believe in the concept of an “informed citizenry” and public service journalism — local, regional, national, international…Great work itself will begin to attract “buzz” online, and other revenue sources could open up, from advertising, to subscribers/members, to paid partnerships with existing hollowed out media corporations desperately seeking content, etc. In some parts of the world, such as Europe, government funding or direct public subsidies (as with the BBC) are possible too, with its related issues…

IPS: In your recent article ‘The Non-profit Road: It’s paved not with gold, but with good journalism’, you say that while increasingly newspapers will develop into “print-digital hybrids” (an expression coined by Robert Kuttner, co-founder and editor of the liberal U.S. magazine The American Prospect), advertising revenue is still to come up to editorial payroll levels. So what happens in the meantime?

CL: In the meantime, downsizing will continue, bureaus will close, investigations will not be undertaken or funded…Some media organisations will cease to exist or become unrecognisable vis-à-vis news as we have known it…Celebrity-headline-entertainment-sport-weather pap instead, masquerading as “news”.

October 9, 2007

Interview about the GCAP

Filed under: Interviews by the Author — miren @ 12:39 am

Q&A: ‘We Do Not Want to Halve Poverty: Eradicate It’
Interview with Sylvia Borren, Executive Director of Oxfam-Novib

Credit:Leonard Faustle, Oxfam Novib

Sylvia Borren

ROME, Oct 8 (IPS) – Sylvia Borren is one of the three co-chairs of GCAP, together with Kumi Naidoo (Secretary General of Civicus) and Ana Agostino (Member of GCAP’s Feminist Taskforce).Marking the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Oct. 17, IPS Editor-in-Chief Miren Gutierrez speaks with Borren about what the GCAP (Global Call to Action against Poverty) campaign means for people.

IPS: Last year GCAP and the UN Millennium Campaign set a Guinness World Record for the largest single coordinated mobilisation in history, when 23.5 million people in more than 100 countries stood up against poverty on Oct. 17. Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika joined the demonstrations; in Jaipur, India, 38,000 cricket fans stood up; and in the Philippines thousands of people marched against poverty, among many other events. Do you expect to break the record this year?

Sylvia Borren: The amazing record of 23.5 million people around the world standing up against poverty can still excite me — but how sad that there was virtually no publicity about it. That will be very different this year I expect. I find I can’t predict the numbers, but this time there are different forms chosen to demand justice. There are stand-up actions, speak out and sing out performances, and football games ‘blowing the whistle on poverty’.

IPS: You have written the lyrics of the Poverty Requiem, to be performed by orchestras and choirs in several countries on Oct. 17. In what ways do you think singing can make a difference?

SB: The global song against poverty is taken from the Poverty Requiem which I wrote together with composer Peter Maissan. A dance was designed for it by le Grand Cru. We expect it to be performed in 20 countries. In the Netherlands it will be performed outside parliament, and in Maastricht and Heerenveen (both in the Netherlands), with a choir of more than 700 people. Last Friday we heard that the global song will be done in 16 places in India.

The Poverty Requiem is very moving, and connects the audience at an emotional level to the daily realities of poverty. And even more important: anyone can sing it, and anyone who does can’t get the music and the lyrics out of their head. It is a piece written for four choirs, two soloists, and dancers, and we have found that some people come again and again to sing it in different performances around the country.

October 8, 2007

My Editor, about my book

Filed under: La Ciudad de las Cigarras — miren @ 1:54 am

“Panameñismos” que convencen

libros, 05 Octubre 2007 0 comentarios, escribe el tuyo

Hoy habla Nacho Fernández, de la editorial Literaturas.com, sobre el libro La ciudad de las cigarras, de Miren Gutiérrez:

¿Cómo llegó este libro a tus manos?

Me lo envió su autora para que lo promocionara en editoriales españolas.

¿Qué te interesó más? ¿El autor o la obra?

La forma en que estaba contado y unos panameñismos que me parecieron muy estéticos en fusión con el castellano y daba otra sonoridad al texto.

¿Cuál fue la frase que te cautivó definitivamente?

Quizás su titulo La ciudad de las cigarras, contenía elementos muy atractivos para saber a que ciudad se refería y todo el submundo que podía aguantar ese término.

¿Por qué hay que comprar este libro?

Es la primera obra de la autora Miren Gutiérrez, una buena periodista que conoce muy bien el mundo de las finanzas y a los ladrones de cuello blanco. Es posible que por la intriga con que está narrado y el desenlace final pudiera ser una buena excusa para llevarse el libro a casa.

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Algunos viernes, habla el editor

He pensado: ¿Por qué tiene que ser alguien ajeno a la edición de la obra quien opine sobre un libro? Quiero saber qué pasa por la mente del editor cuando publica un libro. Quiero entender por qué empeña su dinero en publicar a un autor. Quiero dejar que la voz del editor independiente se escuche.

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