Denise Webb, 20, is a CoGenerate Senior Fellow. She’s a student at Berry College and a seasoned activist, working with organizations including United Way, Partnership for Southern Equity and The Sunrise Movement. She is the co-author of Why Aren’t We Doing This!...
Purpose Prize
The Latest from CoGenerate
What Young Leaders Want — And Don’t Want — From Older Allies
We know from our nationally representative study with NORC at the University of Chicago in 2022 that 76% of Gen Z and 70% of Millennial respondents wish they had more opportunities to work across generations for change. In a new report, What Young Leaders Want — And...
Two Oscar-winning Films Shine a Light on Intergenerational Connection
Despite the ongoing drumbeat of generational conflict (a hate story), right in front of us is evidence of a new narrative of cross-generational connection and collaboration (a love story). That love story was on full display at the Grammys, most visibly in the Tracy...
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Bill Kovach
Purpose Prize Fellow 2007
Raising the standards of professional journalism
Given declining newspaper circulations and the lack of trust between the public and the media today, Bill Kovach is more than a little bit concerned about the future of journalism. Kovach covered the civil rights movement for The Nashville Tennessean, spent 18 years at The New York Times, and capped one of the most distinguished careers in journalism as editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (which won two Pulitzer Prizes during his tenure, the first for the paper in 20 years). In 1997 Kovach formed the Committee of Concerned Journalists, a group of journalists, publishers, owners, and academics that works to secure the profession’s future by establishing high standards of journalistic integrity and ensuring that today’s journalists get the proper grounding in ethics, values, and professional codes of conduct. Using a Traveling Curriculum created for training, Committee representatives have visited 98 newsrooms in recent years and trained 5,500 journalists. As a result, each newsroom has made changes to protect standards and establish stronger connections to readers, including the introduction of reader advisory panels and new ways to bridge communication gaps between reporters and editors. Kovach is now customizing his training model to reach a new generation of newsroom leaders and to be relevant to the challenges and opportunities presented by the blogosphere and electronic, digitized news.
2016 Update: The Committee of Concerned Journalists (CCJ) ceased to exist as an operating organization on December 31, 2011. The work and the legacy of CCJ and its members continue through a variety of means, including in cooperation with the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, CCJ’s partner for its last six years, through the books and ideas the group inspired.