'Students, you will determine the future of journalism'

"You have to practice the values of independence and honesty." University of Navarra photo.

An icon of Spanish broadcast journalism, I�aki Gabilondo, delivered a message last week designed to inspire and challenge 400 students and professors of journalism.
"The future hasn't been written yet:, he told them. "The question, 'What is going to happen?' is irrelevant. What will happen will be determined by what you do, what you don't do, and what you allow to happen."
Gabilondo, 73, was speaking at his alma mater, the School of Communication of the University of Navarra (class of 1963), where he also was a professor for several years. His eloquent baritone voice is well known to Spaniards after decades of presence on the morning radio news program Hoy por Hoy, roughly equivalent to NPR's Morning Edition.

He recently asked Martin Baron, executive editor of the Washington Post, how journalism can survive amid all the problems we face, including the collapse of the economic model, the loss of credibility with the public, and the misinformation, disinformation, and junk published everywhere.

Versi�n en espa�ol

The key, Baron replied, lies in practicing the values at the heart of the profession: editorial independence, credibility, honesty, and commitment to quality. "These are not just romantic ideas," Gabilondo said. "They are the essential elements of journalism. With these values you can move ahead. They are going to last."

These days Gabilondo does a brief commentary on the news via a video blog carried on the website of El Pa�s, the country's leading daily newspaper. But he recently did a series of video interviews titled "When I'm not around: The world in 25 years", with leading scientists and technologists around the world. So Gabilondo is more interested in looking forward than in looking back.
Read more �

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wesley Weber � Canada�s Master Counterfeiter

Wesley Weber who was one of the world�s most famous counterfeiters (forging millions of bank notes) is arguably the first image that comes to mind when counterfeiting is being discussed. From the start, Wesley Weber�s goal was to live the good life�fast cars, beautiful women, lavish parties. But that took money, lots of it. He tried financing his dreams with a series of petty thefts, growing marijuana, and forgery until he was busted in 1997 and spent three months in jail. Two years later his marijuana operation netted 18 months of house arrest and 240 hours of community service. Weber needed a better way to subsidize his ambitions. Then it hit him. Why not print his own money? Putting Technology to Work Weber had always been a computer geek. As a kid, he�d tried duplicating Canadian 10s and 20s but decided doing it on a large scale wouldn�t be practical with the equipment he had. After several years of science and engineering classes, he thought it was worth another try. He scanned an...
Read more