The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

research center that explores the intersection and impact of

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

and

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

in theory and practice. Among other activities, the center organizes dozens of yearly events for journalists, scholars and the public, many of which take place at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. Courses taught by Shorenstein Center professors are also an integral part of the Harvard Kennedy School's curriculum. Since its founding in 1986, the center has also emerged as a source for research on US campaigns,

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

s and

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (pro ...

. The center hosts visiting fellows each semester, who produce research on a broad range of topics. Papers have included "Riptide: What Really Happened to the News Business," by John Huey, Martin Nisenholtz and Paul Sagan; "Did Twitter Kill the Boys on the Bus?" by

Peter Hamby Peter Hamby (born August 21, 1981) is an American political journalist. He is the host of ''Good Luck America'' at Snapchat and a contributing writer for Puck News and Vanity Fair. He began his journalism career at CNN. Hamby has been described ...

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

and Snapchat; and "Digital Fuel of the 21st Century," by Vivek Kundra, who was the first chief information officer of the United States from March 2009 to August 2011 under President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

. In 2016, the center produced a series of four reports analyzing media coverage of the 2016 US presidential election, authored by Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press. The Shorenstein Center also awards the annual Goldsmith Awards Program, which includes the

Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting The Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting is an award for journalists administered by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. The program was launched in 1991, with the goal of exposing examples of ...

and the

Goldsmith Book Prize The Goldsmith Book Prize is a literary award for books published in the United States. Description The award is meant to recognize works that " mprovegovernment through an examination of the intersection between press, politics, and public policy. ...

. Past winners have included

James Risen James Risen (born April 27, 1955) is an American journalist for ''The Intercept''. He previously worked for ''The New York Times'' and before that for ''Los Angeles Times''. He has written or co-written many articles concerning U.S. government ...

and Eric Lichtblau of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''; Patricia Callahan, Sam Roe and Michael Hawthorne of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

''; and Debbie Cenziper and Sarah Cohen of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. Other prizes and lectures given by the Shorenstein Center include the David Nyhan Prize for Political Journalism, the T.H. White Lecture on Press and Politics and the Richard S. Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press.

History

The

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

has always recognized that engagement with the media should be part of the school's focus, and initially this role was fulfilled by the

Harvard Institute of Politics The Institute of Politics (IOP) is an institute of Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University that was created to serve as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy, as well as to inspire Harvard undergraduates to consider careers in politi ...

(IOP). In 1974 Jonathan Moore became the institute's director, and under him the IOP sponsored conferences and invited journalists to Harvard as fellows. In 1980 Moore drafted a proposal for a Harvard center on the press, politics and public policy. Kennedy School dean Graham Allison and Harvard president

Derek Bok Derek Curtis Bok (born March 22, 1930) is an American lawyer and educator, and the former president of Harvard University. Life and career Bok was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Following his parents' divorce, he, his mother, brother and siste ...

supported the concept, and an advisory board and committee were formed. Those consulted included political scientist

Richard Neustadt Richard Elliott Neustadt (June 26, 1919 – October 31, 2003) was an American political scientist specializing in the United States presidency. He also served as adviser to several presidents. He was the author of the books ''Presidential Power' ...

; attorney and educator

David Riesman David Riesman (September 22, 1909 – May 10, 2002) was an American sociologist, educator, and best-selling commentator on American society. Career Born to a wealthy German Jewish family, he attended Harvard College, where he graduated in 1931 ...

; journalists James C. Thomson Jr., David S. Broder, J. Anthony Lukas and

Dan Rather Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. (; born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist, commentator, and former national evening news anchor. Rather began his career in Texas, becoming a national name after his reporting saved thousands of lives during Hur ...

; newspaper executives

Otis Chandler Otis Chandler (November 23, 1927 – February 27, 2006) was the publisher of the ''Los Angeles Times'' between 1960 and 1980, leading a large expansion of the newspaper and its ambitions. He was the fourth and final member of the Chandler fami ...

Katharine Graham Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) was an American newspaper publisher. She led her family's newspaper, ''The Washington Post'', from 1963 to 1991. Graham presided over the paper as it reported on the Watergate scandal, whi ...

and William O. Taylor II; researcher Stephen H. Hess; '' Foreign Affairs'' editor James F. Hoge, Jr.; and television executive Frank Stanton . An endowment fund was created by the IOP, and other donations came from the ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'',

Cox Enterprises Cox Enterprises, Inc. is a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in total revenue. Its major operating subsidiaries are Cox Communications and ...

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...

and

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

. In all, these efforts raised $5 million for professorships, programs and fellowships. In March 1985, Joan Shorenstein, a producer of the ''

CBS Evening News with Dan Rather The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...

'', died of cancer at age 38. Her parents, Walter H. and Phyllis J. Shorenstein, were interested in creating an initiative that would honor their daughter's passion for journalism and politics, and spoke with Edward M. Kennedy, Allison, Bok and Moore. The Shorensteins' gave an initial gift of $5 million, and the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy officially opened in September 1986. At the ceremony an address was given by Benjamin C. Bradlee, with remarks by Senator Kennedy, Walter H. Shorenstein and others. Two years after the Shorenstein Center's founding, veteran journalist Marvin Kalb became its director. He worked to raise the center's profile, and under his leadership the Theodore H. White Lecture on Press and Politics was established, followed by the

. Kalb directed the center until 1999, and during that time formalized its fellowship program; developed the introductory course on press, politics and public policy; and expanded the Kennedy School's curriculum. On July 1, 2000, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Alex S. Jones was named director of the Shorenstein Center. Since taking over, he has enhanced the fellowship program, launched initiatives to increase student engagement and broadened the advisory board. The Shorenstein Center is one of the most active programs at the

, and has hosted more than a thousand speakers since 1986. It is currently run by Nancy Gibbs, former editor in chief of Time and former editorial director of the Time Inc. News Group.

Shorenstein Center fellows

The Shorenstein Center traditionally hosts 5-6 fellows per semester. These fellows are well-established practitioners in media, politics and public policy. They serve as mentors to students and hold study groups to share their experiences with the Harvard Kennedy School community more broadly. Each fellow produces a final research paper that contributes to ideas and innovation in their respective areas of expertise. Past fellows have included Maria Ressa, Bob Schieffer, Richard Stengel and Judy Woodruff.

Combating fake news & ''Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review''

In September 2017, First Draft News, a non-profit that works on solutions to challenges with trust & truth in news, set up a home base at the Shorenstein Center. The network includes more than 100 organizations that help newsrooms & tech companies verify news. This announcement is part of the Shorenstein Center's broader work and research in the area of combatting fake news. In February 2017, the Shorenstein Center hosted a conference on fake news, bringing together academics and practitioners to discuss solutions to the problem. The conference was co-sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, as well as Northeastern University. In response to online misinformation, the Shorenstein Center created the ''Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review'', a peer-reviewed,

open-access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...

Journalist's Resource

Journalist’s Resource is a free reference web page based at the Shorenstein Center. It makes leading media research and insights on topical news items available to journalists, bloggers, students and professors. Peer-reviewed research is central to its mandate and day to day offerings. The resource has been recognized by the American Library Association for the quality of work made available on the site.

References

External links