The other night was the most gratifying moment I have had in my career in journalism: watching the fifth class of Social Journalism graduates at CUNY’s Newmark School of Journalism as they presented their stunning final projects serving communities — and presented their visions for a new journalism that values listening over lecturing, conversation over content, collaboration over consumption, service over product.
There’s no crying in journalism but as one of the students said to another: “Jeff’s ugly crying.” I was, more than once. Tears were spotted also coming from the Social Journalism program’s phenomenal director, Carrie Brown, as well as reportedly on the dean’s cheek, and from at least two grizzled editors on the faculty.
These students took the precepts of a kind of journalism taught by Carrie and me — and the dedicated faculty Carrie leads — and made it their own, bringing it to life by indentifying, observing, listening to, empathizing with, reflecting, and serving communities with humanity, utility, information (of course), imagination, cooperation, and bravery.
In class, we talk about the need to listen first. We don’t pretend this is new. Some faculty at the school recently read the book The Conversation of Journalism, written in 1994 — before the web — by Rob Anderson Robert Dardenne and George Killenberg. “Listening, when…
