Rji-interview-holman-bell

Clark Bell and Peggy Holman each reflect on their conversation

• A conversation with Clark Bell, McCormick Foundation /June 20, 2012 / By Peggy Holman

I connected with Clark Bell this morning to learn about his interest in journalism and the Pivot Point meeting. A journalism grant maker for the McCormick Foundation, Clark brings a newsroom background to his work. He spoke of the many people who had put out a helping hand to him along the way and does his best to pass that generosity forward. He mentioned that the McCormick Foundation is shifting their grant making from supply side -- publishers, editors, journalists, etc. -- to the demand side -- audience development, civic engagement, news literacy.

Clark sees his contribution to the Pivot Point meeting as bringing a well-rounded perspective. He felt he can represent journalism funders.

In terms of what can advance journalism, Clark sees a role for everyone in civic engagement – educators, new media people, mainstream journalists, etc. Now that anyone can publish, people need to be involved digitally. For the sake of democracy, he thought that we need a strong distribution system and quality news.

Clark would like to see out a discussion of best practices at the Pivot Point meeting. He felt strongly that different markets require different programs, so it’s important to avoid me-too-ism. That tendency is a hazard of industry desperation. He mentioned Eric Newton and Chris Callahan’s teaching hospital model as something he’d like to see discussed. [See http://www.knightfoundation.org/press-room/speech/journalism-education-reform-how-far-should-it-go/ for some background on it.] Clark said that we’ve got to get a better understanding of people’s media habits and what motivates their choices so that we can make the importance of news literacy more apparent.

He ended by saying:

My bottom line: this invitation list is like me going to a smorgasbord. So much abundance! I need to be careful what I pick. Everything looks and smells good. I intend to tap in and absorb more than I bring forward. I’m interested in the cutting edge thinking of this audience. The paired interview, the bibliography, the wiki, the nuts and bolts look very promising.

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• From Clark Bell: MY CONVERSATION WITH PEGGY HOLMAN

• Peggy has been an author, a fellow, a founder, a practitioner, a host and a queen. Well, maybe not a queen. The Seattle resident is perhaps best known as a co-founder of Journalism That Matters. At Pivot Point, she’ll be ready to unleash her passion and energy about the proper role of the news media as an agent for positive socio-economic change.

Journalism needs to confront complex issues, produce superb story-telling and provide solutions, she said. She refers to a reconceptualization about the purpose of journalism. She’s talking impact. Make that high impact. And there is opportunity to shine.

Consider the case of the City of Langley on South Whidbey Island, Wash., where the community committed to going all in on food systems. Last year, citizen-produced videos, snappy bloggers and a heavily engaged not-for-profit sector spotlighted schools lunches, farmer’s markets, grocery store shelving practices and the healthy food safety net. In November, the island’s healthy local food system was selected as the living learning laboratory for the inaugural Thriving Communities Conference. While crusading citizens and organizations took control, the two newspapers serving the community did little but run PSAs.

She expects an open-ended, forward-focused discussion next week in Chicago. She wants to discuss the proper the balance between technology-driven communication and good old fashioned reporting/story-telling.

What about curating, navigating and connecting with the community? It boils down to building and creating different relationships with audiences. In fact, how about adding a sixth W to the reporting inverted pyramid? ( “What is Possible Now”)

I can’t wait to meet this dynamo.