Academia, meet the press
We live in a world of too much information and not enough knowledge. No one feels the strain of that digital-age truism more than journalists, who are asked to ferret out and process information with ever-increasing speed — and often at the expense of providing solid context for the news of the day. Journalist’s Resource, a new online tool developed at Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, aims to put that background knowledge at the fingertips of reporters, bloggers, or even concerned citizens by making the work of academics less opaque and easier to find. But the website, which curates scholarship on government, economics, society, and the environment, is more than just a reliable shortcut for deadline-driven journalists. It’s also the ever-evolving manifestation of two Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) professors’ mission to promote what they call “knowledge-based reporting” in the mainstream media. “There is a real need for...