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Reinventing the Newswheel

(USDA graph: Grain Stocks in China, 1960-2003)

Reinventing the Newswheel in a World of Expanding Markets and Shrinking Resources



What would economics coverage look like if we could reinvent it TODAY, incorporating what we now know (or think we know) about global environmental and economic trends?

The question was prompted by the growing sense that global economic trends and global environmental trends are simultaneously speeding up and converging; and by a growing suspicion that journalism has been slow to catch up with this changing reality. REINVENTING THE NEWSWHEEL… examines:

  • THE STAKES -- Have the environmental stakes been raised to the point where man-made environmental factors have begun affecting economies?

  • THE MEASURING STICKS -- Have they begun affecting economies in ways which call for new measures of those economies? Is there a new paradigm out there?

  • THE NEW REALITIES -- Has the ongoing process of globalization created a new reality which journalists have not yet caught up with?

  • THE JOURNALISM -- Is there anything economic journalism in particular can be doing to accommodate the new economic and environmental realities which it is not already doing? Does bowing to environmental reality in the context of economic coverage automatically turn that coverage into eco-propaganda?

    • Twenty-one experts on the economy, the environment or both offer answers to these questions; among them: JOSEPH STIGLITZ … JEFFREY SACHS … JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH … SIR CRISPIN TICKELL … LESTER BROWN … LORD MEGHNAD DESAI … DIANA LIVERMAN … KENNETH ROGOFF … DEIRDRE McCLOSKEY. In addition, author Vicki Barker summarizes current thinking on each topic… and describes the revolution brewing in economics which could reshape how governments think about, and plan for, climate change.

    Although written primarily for news managers, this report is a valuable resource for anyone trying to make sense of a rapidly-changing world.

    CLICK on image, left, to download pdf file.(80 pages - 3786KB)
     

    @ Vicki Barker 2005