reporting

Huell Howser Lives!

One Chronicler of Our State Offers His Take on Another

Zócalo is celebrating its 20th birthday! As part of the festivities, we’re publishing reflections and responses that revisit and reimagine some of our most impactful stories and public programs. Connecting California columnist Joe Mathews revisits Southern California author D.J. Waldie’s 2012 essay “The Darkness Behind Huell Howser” and considers why, over a decade after Howser’s death, the public TV’s great California chronicler retains such a hold on us.

“Do you know Huell Howser?”

I got that question recently while chatting with a counter guy at Erick Schat’s …

by Joe Mathews |

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What Do We Need From Campaign Journalism? | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

What Do We Need From Campaign Journalism?

Whether It’s 1968 or 2020, It’s Necessary to ‘Reveal the Truth About a Campaign’

by Sara Suárez |

What kind of campaign reporting serves our democracy, and what sort of political journalism undermines it? How have the methods of reporting on presidential contests changed over the course of …

Fake News Won’t Kill Democracy

Digital Journalism Is Challenging Journalists and Society, but There Are Reasons to Be Hopeful for the Future

By Joe Mathews |

The world now confronts a bitter irony: the democratization of information has proven not to be all that good for democracy.

That provocative observation, offered by moderator and Zócalo Public Square …

How to Build an Ecosystem for High-Quality Journalism

German Reporters Say the Future of Digital Media Will Be Structured Like a Coral Reef

By Christian Schwägerl and Maximilian Steinbeis |

People all over the world are searching, like explorers, for a model to support the high-quality digital journalism our societies and democracies need.

We think we’ve found a model at sea. …

The Media’s Prediction Addiction Is Anti-Democratic

Poll-Obsessed Journalists Try to Pick Winners Before the People Do

By Andrés Martinez |

You have to give them credit: many journalists are confessing that they really blew it in the first act of this presidential election season. But most of their mea …

Learning Journalism From TMZ

Those Who Cover Politicians Could Take Some Big Lessons From Those Who Pursue the Kardashians

Producing journalism about politics requires reckoning with entertainment culture and the journalists who cover it. Entertainers almost routinely become politicians, or at least flirt with the idea. Entertainment TV shows …


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