Saving Journalism

Why is society's watchdog, the press, with its long and often honourable pedigree, going feral? Failing to bark at misrepresentation and fraud, while snarling at truth? Why does journalism have the privileged position it does? As commercialization collides with the greatest communication revolution since Gutenberg, why are both revenues and media ethics in meltdown? If digital and now AI-produced media have 'the most prodigious capability for spreading lies the world has ever seen' (Alan Rusbridger, Editor, The Guardian, U.K.), is it coincidence that readers are turning away in the millions, globally? Yes, news mongering there has always been! But responsible journalism has foundations that have been sadly neglected. Why did journalism - the Fourth Estate epitomized by Edmund Burke - emerge first in Europe, even though China had printing nearly a thousand years earlier? That epic tale is not known to many people today, not even most journalists. How far back do the origins of public discourse go? What was it about moral fervour, all the way back to the Hebrew people, that revolutionized not only Greek and Roman classical narrative, but also the understanding of values, character, personality, and indeed language itself? Should it surprise us that America's first newspaper editor was a Christian preacher? What was the connection between Bible translation and public discourse, of which responsible journalism was the most brilliant - and indispensable - adjunct? For some, a surprising tale, for others even an unpalatable one: Saving Journalism recounts it's often heroic past - and, just possibly, may equip and inspire you to help win back its future.