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February 10, 2003
journalism and political theory
Most of my time is spent planning for the launch of our report on k-12 civic education, The Civic Mission of Schools. At a press conference on Thursday, it will be "received" by John Bridgeland, Advisor to the President and Director of USA Freedom Corps, in the presence of the presidents of The Pew Charitable Trusts and Carnegie Corporation of New York, and others. So there are millions of practical details to attend to.
Meanwhile, my colleagues and I filed an interim report with the Kettering
Foundation, describing our progress on a project involving journalism
and political theory. We're trying to figure out how each discipline
might learn from and benefit the other. As an experiment, two graduate
students (under the direction of a philosophy professor and a journalism
professor) are creating a Website presenting ideas from political theory
in a format useful to working journalists. The idea is to learn what kind
of philosophy would be practically relevant—and what journalists
should learn from philosophers. The students have decided to focus the
Website itself on war and democratic theory. The central issues to be
addressed are (1) the uneasy relationship between national security and
civil liberties in a democratic society; (2) freedom of information, and
especially press access to information in time of war; and (3) the implications
of a professional military for the health of a democracy.
Posted by peterlevine at February 10, 2003 04:45 PM