Journalism is an institution built on trust. Yet just 32 percent of Americans say they trust the news media. Why is journalism so distrusted? What are the implications? And what might be done to rebuild trust? Join University of Oregon journalism instructors Todd Milbourn and Lisa Heyamoto for an interactive presentation on the crisis of confidence in American journalism. Milbourn and Heyamoto, both former newspaper reporters, have been traveling across the country and listening to citizens first-hand experiences with reporting in their communities. They’ll share insights from their research and offer strategies for bridging the trust gap.
Lisa Heyamoto is a narrative journalist and senior instructor at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Her work focuses on community-building through storytelling. Before academia, she was a columnist and reporter The Sacramento Bee and The Seattle Times.
Todd Milbourn is an investigative reporter and journalism instructor at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. He teaches courses on writing, multimedia storytelling and journalism innovation, and serves as co-director of the UO’s journalism master’s program.
A response panel consisting of our local media will be in attendance to voice their observations and answer questions from the audience.
moderator:
Bruce Cummings’ career as a broadcast journalist spanned four decades. Nearly thirty of those years were spent at NBC Nightly News, where he worked as a senior producer with Tom Brokaw and then Brian Williams. Bruce spent 18 years in the Washington, D.C. bureau of NBC News, managing the reporting of correspondents and producers covering the White House, the Hill, State, the Pentagon and the federal agencies. He and the Nightly team won numerous Emmys and other national awards. Bruce was regularly called on to manage the coverage of major ongoing breaking news stories for all NBC News programs, including the Enron meltdown and the D.C. sniper. Bruce transferred to the Los Angeles bureau of NBC News in 1997, continuing in his role as a senior producer of NBC Nightly News. He oversaw coverage of national stories from Alaska south through the Pacific Northwest, California, Mexico, and inland through the intermountain west. Before joining NBC News, Bruce worked in Washington, DC as a news producer for the late Peter Jennings at ABC’s “Good Morning America”.