In the wake of the 2016 election, where strident voices on the left and right found audiences through 24-hour news, online outlets and traditional print publications, the place of the media in society has become as consequential a story as the news itself.
For the last 13 years, National Public Radio’s David Folkenflik has been at the center of the storm—covering the biggest media stories and chronicling the industry’s behind-the-scenes pressures, from President Trump’s public feuds with the New York Times and other titans of the industry to how the demands of technology have changed presidential election coverage.
Folkenflik, the four-time winner of the Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism from the National Press Club, will speak Wednesday, Oct. 11, at 7:30 p.m. in Longwood University’s Wygal Hall on “Believe Me: The Media, The Public and The Presidency in the Trump Era.”
The talk is the first installment of the President’s Lecture Series for the 2017-18 academic year, which will explore broad challenges for American democracy from a variety of perspectives. It is free and open to the community.
Folkenflik will offer an insider’s look at how media consumption affects the way news coverage is produced and will examine whether journalists are providing enough context to meet the public’s need to be informed participants in democracy. He’ll discuss current trends in the industry and ask the audience to consider their obligations as citizens in this new media environment.
Named one of the 50 most influential people in American media, Folkenflik scored the first interview with New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet after his appointment. His reporting led the U.S. military to revamp safety measures for journalists in Baghdad, and more recently he has reported extensively on the controversy surrounding coverage of the death of a young Democratic National Committee staffer.
National Public Radio is the nation’s leading provider of news and cultural conversations and reaches more than 30 million listeners each week. Folkenflik is a regular guest on many of their top-rated shows, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Here & Now. He is also the author of two books, 2011’s Page One: Inside the New York Times and the Future of Journalism and 2013’s Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires.
Before joining NPR, Folkenflik spent more than a decade at the Baltimore Sun covering higher education, national politics and the media. He lives in New York City with his family.
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