Watch videos of the talks below. Learn more about PDF 2013 and the full video archive of all speakers.

Richard Gingras and Alex S. Jones.

April 30, 2013 – Google's head of news and social products Richard Gingras spoke to the Shorenstein Center about the evolution of the news ecosystem, and how media institutions can stay relevant in a changing technological landscape.

Gingras, who describes himself not as a journalist, but as a "technologist," reflected on why the news industry has experienced such changes in the past decade. “In our consumption of news, our whole approaches to discovery of news have changed dramatically,” he said, “and this has had a huge impact on the nature of media and news products and their intended business models.” The Internet has developed in such a way that “everything has changed,” not only the news itself but the way in which users approach and consume it.

He outlined three key things in the Internet’s development that have impacted the news industry: search, blogs and social. Search engines were the first major advancement of the Internet, and not only provided voluminous information for every query, but also allowed users to “discover new voices.” The blogosphere took off and helped increase traffic across the web. The social sharing dimension, he said, has had a greater impact than search and blogs. While discovery through search engines “comes from a direct intent,” with answers and voices on a specific topic, the social sphere “opens it up to serendipity,” and users discover news and information shared by a friend that they might not have found directly.

Gingras prefers not to think of the future of journalism as a “transition” – a “dirty word,” he says – but as a chance for innovation, a blank canvas, without the “baggage of the past.” Trying to make old products work in a new and quickly changing environment, he said, only leads to “incremental decision making…and compromise,” while competitors are creating new products from scratch that better fit the emerging media landscape. “Media companies who survived the disruption tended to do so because they acquired new players who were effective in the new environment,” he said.

While he admits it’s not easy, Gingras encourages “creating cultures of innovation in media institutions” so that everyone is thinking innovatively, not just at the top levels. “The future of journalism will be better than its past,” he concluded, but added that “there is a lot more work to do:  we have to embrace new forms, techniques, technologies, capabilities – and get comfortable with the chaos that comes with an open environment to help our readers and consumers begin to parse that chaos into knowledge vs. data, fact vs. fiction.”

Article and photo by Janell Sims, Shorenstein Center. 

"The Clash of Values in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings."

Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution with Souad Mekhennet, Nieman Fellow and reporter who contributes to The New York Times, Der Spiegel and ZDF (German Television); and Denis Sullivan, Profesor of Political Science and Director of the Middle East Center for Peace, Culture, and Development, Northeastern University. Co-sponsored with the Nieman Foundation, the Weatherhead Center and the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School.

The most recent issue, published in April 2013, reported on the Goldsmith Awards, a discussion with Chris Hughes, the Spring Speaker Series, Spring Fellows, Journalist's Resource, and more.

Download the newsletter here (PDF).

Screening of Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law, a documentary film featuring Beatrice Mtetwa, a human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe, by filmmaker Lorie Conway.

Alan Khazei and Alex S. Jones.

April 16, 2013 – After Monday’s tragic events at the Boston Marathon, the Kennedy School’s annual Public Service Week began on a somber note. Yet as the Shorenstein Center welcomed Alan Khazei, founder and chief executive officer of Be the Change, Inc., co-founder of City Year and HKS adjunct lecturer, the focus on service and policy seemed timely. Shorenstein Center Director Alex S. Jones introduced Khazei as a “genuine catalyst for positive change, and an inspiring leader of the effort to create social entrepreneurial ventures that benefit the common good.”

Reflecting on the recent tragedy, Khazei noted that in spite of the horrific events, “we also saw the best of America.” In the stories of first responders who rushed toward the scene to help others, the nurses and doctors who worked tirelessly, the people who opened their homes and donated blood – “the innate spirit of people comes through…and takes over.” When tragedy strikes, people want to take action, and “we have to recognize that spirit,” Khazei said.

City Year was founded out of the idea of an “action tank,” Khazei explained, a way to combine public policy with public service. Along with his friend Michael Brown, Khazei developed a theory that plenty of research had been done in think tanks about national service, but had never been tested. There were also programs emerging with a focus on service, but with no government support. Khazei and Brown then decided to start an action tank to “demonstrate the theory by developing a model that could test the theory, and put it into action.” They found support from the private sector, and worked with schools to give young people opportunities to serve.

Khazei said that while many organizations focus on direct service, they “don’t think about the larger impact.” His goal is to bring about a “commitment to national service,” so that one day a typical question asked of an 18-year-old is, “Where are you going to serve?”

While Khazei acknowledged the benefits of short-term volunteering, he said he is “an even bigger believer in national service.” A year of full-time service “turns on your justice nerves…and it’s hard to turn it off.” There is a spirit of public service among Americans, Khazei said, and “if we’re willing to tap into it and respond to it and encourage it, we can make our big dreams real…and reach the potential that is inherent in our community and in our country.”

Article and photo by Janell Sims, Shorenstein Center.

Keith Richburg

April 9, 2013 – Keith Richburg, Fellow at the Institute of Politics and China correspondent for The Washington Post from 2009-2013, recalled his first trip to China in 1985 and said that the biggest difference between China then and now is the Internet. "The Internet has really changed everything," he said at a Shorenstein Center event on Tuesday, "particularly the relationship between the Chinese government and the Chinese people."

China has over 500 million Internet users, and 300 million users on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform similar to Twitter, Richburg said. He listed several areas where he has observed Weibo and the Internet making an impact in Chinese society. For example, online fundraising sites have grown in popularity as people have become more trusting of private collection funds rather than official organizations or government programs.

The Internet has also been instrumental in exposing and even bringing down corrupt officials, said Richburg. Certain websites have investigated corruption in the Chinese government and presented their findings. As a result, Richburg said, the secret dealings of public servants is “no longer in the shadows – their faces and cases are now put out there in front of the public.”

The Chinese government’s response has been both repression and acceptance, Richburg said. It has attempted to repress online activism by requiring real-name registration for Weibo, which means that anything that is posted on social media can be traced back to the user. Authorities have also censored certain search terms, like “Bird Flu.” Their most drastic attempt to repress online action is to arrest and detain bloggers for what they post. The final step in total repression, Richburg said, would be to shut down Weibo entirely, but he said the government fears the backlash such extreme action would create, since social networking is so universally used.

On the other hand, the government has accepted the pervasive reality of Weibo, and has begun to participate as a way of controlling the messages that go out. Police, ministries and other government departments have their own Weibo accounts that send out messages and propaganda to counteract any negativity that exists about them.

Richburg concluded by stating that the Internet has “made government more accountable and effective,” and has made public opinion more valuable. “It remains to be seen whether, on a higher level, it will change policy.”

Article and photo by Janell Sims, Shorenstein Center.

Wednesday, April 3, 4:10 – 5:30 p.m. | 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 200-North
"The MoveOn Effect: The Unexpected Transformation of American Political Advocacy."
Discussion with David Karpf, School of Media and Public Affairs, George Washington University. Co-sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.

Dana Bash

April 2, 2013 – Speaker Series with Dana Bash, CNN’s chief congressional correspondent.

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Speaker Series with Dana Bash, chief congressional correspondent, CNN.
Tuesday, April 2, 12pm