Author: Jim Boren
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From the heart of California, a new health reporting fellowship is telling the stories of residents struggling to access health care.
Veteran journalist offers a closer look at the San Joaquin Valley’s health-care realities In the San Joaquin Valley, many families live with the quiet strain of a health care system that often fails to reach them. This is farmworker country, where small rural communities stretch for miles between towns and the nearest hospital or medical…
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What I witnessed on the UFW picket line at the start of the grape strike: A struggle to improve life for those who harvest our crops
From early mornings to heated debates, the human stories behind the farm labor movement unfolded before me. The monumental downfall of the late farm labor leader Cesar Chavez brings back vivid memories of my time as a young journalist covering the grape strike in California’s San Joaquin Valley vineyards during the 1970s. It was a…
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What the Cesar Chavez revelations reveal about journalism’s blind spots
As fresh scrutiny reshapes Chavez’s legacy, it also exposes how journalistic habits can distort complex figures. The New York Times’ bombshell report on Cesar Chavez has taken many by surprise, forcing difficult questions about how aspects of his behavior may have gone unexamined for decades. For those of us connected to Fresno State, the revelations…
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Institute for Media and Public Trust secures major grant to propel Journalists of Color training program
By Jim Boren In a significant commitment toward fostering diversity and inclusion in San Joaquin Valley journalism, the Institute for Media and Public Trust at Fresno State has been awarded a $201,000 grant to continue its visionary Journalists of Color training program. The California Endowment grant will help fortify the ongoing success of its pioneering…
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Collaborative Crusade: Journalists, funders unite at Stanford to rescue local journalism from decline
By Jim Boren The atmosphere was charged with optimism as about 200 news leaders and foundation executives convened a journalism conference at Stanford University. Their shared objective: Devise a comprehensive strategy to revitalize the precarious business model of news, especially traditional newspapers. Discussions at the California Journalism Summit revolved around cultivating sustainable support through avenues…
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California plays catch-up: Two state Assembly bills require media literacy in K-12 public school curriculum.
By Lucca Lorenzi, guest author The National Center for Biotechnology Information defines social media literacy as having “knowledge and development of skills to analyze, evaluate, produce, and participate in social media, which favors critical thinking.” With millions of users on social media platforms across multiple generations, you’d expect that its common use would warrant school curriculum to…
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Picture this: A.I. may generate images in seconds, but we can’t charge ahead without considering the ethical and legal issues.
By Lucca Lorenzi, guest author It has been common vernacular to refer to an image as “photoshopped” if it has been altered or edited, even if these edits were not made using the Adobe software. Photoshop has been synonymous with image editing. However, artificial intelligence (A.I.) software is beginning to change the way photos are…
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ChatGPT is an impressive artificial intelligence application, but it’s often misleading and fact-challenged
There’s currently a frenzy over the artificial intelligence application ChatGPT and whether it will create a new generation of plagiarists and increase the amount of misinformation going around the internet. I decided to test the application over the past several weeks, and I’ve been impressed with its ability to quickly create papers on just about…
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Majority of Americans trust local news more than national news because they believe local journalists care more about what they’re covering
A new study on how Americans view news coverage drills deeper into the reasons that they have declining trust in news sources. The research by Gallup and the Knight Foundation comes as news organizations are looking or way to rebuild trust while also finding a sustainable business model. A majority of Americans (53%) believe most…
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When will the final printed newspaper roll off the press? It’s coming soon, judging by today’s classrooms where students who read news say they only access content online.
Because I have a long history in the newspaper business, I’m often asked by people how long do I think traditional newspapers will be printing an actual paper. I’ve always been optimistic about some version of the print product being available in the news industry. But as I view the reading habits of my college…
