When CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric addresses Tufts students and community members this afternoon as part of the sixth annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism, she will be joining a canon of prominent journalists who have been invited to the Hill to carry on the excitement for journalism to which the forum's namesake devoted himself.
Jonathan Tisch (A '76), Tisch College benefactor and current co−chairman of the Board of the Loews Corporation, will join Couric for an interview style dialogue about this year's forum's topic: "Watching the News: Broadcasting, Webcasting, and Forecasting." Couric will also be holding a book signing in the Tufts Bookstore Monday morning to promote her new book, "The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons From Extraordinary Lives," which will officially be released to the public the next day.
Julie Dobrow, director of the Communications and Media Studies program (CMS), and University President Lawrence Bacow collaborated with the Edward R. Murrow Center for the Study of Public Diplomacy, a subsidiary of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, to start the forum in 2006. CMS and the Murrow Center, as well as the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, jointly sponsor the forum, which serves several purposes, Dobrow explained.
"[It is meant] to celebrate Edward R. Murrow's life and excitement for journalism at Tufts [and to] examine contemporary issues in journalism, looking at how journalism has changed since Murrow's day," Dobrow said. "[The forum] showcases Murrow's significance but also looks at the changing nature of journalism."
Dobrow added that Tufts has a strong connection to Murrow, as well as the wider field of journalism.
"We are the repository of the majority of Edward R. Murrow's papers, in Tisch and Fletcher, and the coincidence of Tufts having this really extraordinary collection as well as a really extraordinary body of alums who have been very successful in journalism provided the impetus to start the forum," Dobrow said.
Murrow began his career as a CBS radio and television host, and came to Tufts after his tenure as director of the United States Information Agency during the Kennedy administration.
"Murrow, after he left the government, was scheduled to come to Fletcher to write and teach a course, and he was friendly with the then−dean of the Fletcher School. He brought his name and his papers to the Fletcher School, although he passed away before he became heavily involved with the school," Crocker Snow, director of the Murrow Center, said.
According to Snow, Murrow's work with the Kennedy administration prompted then−Fletcher School Dean Edmund Gullion to coin the term "public diplomacy" in 1965.
"Murrow was first and foremost a media person, and his reputation was based on his integrity as a journalist. He brought this to his work in the Kennedy administration, and that is where [the term] ‘public diplomacy' was engendered," Snow said.
Since its inception, the forum has featured a range of prominent panelists and speakers, including Ted Koppel, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Chris Matthews and Casey Murrow, the son of the late Edward R. Murrow. Both Snow and Dobrow agreed that Katie Couric was a logical choice to speak at the Forum.
"She's the anchor person for CBS, which is a natural fit with Edward R. Murrow. We like to have [a] high−profile broadcast journalist with a slight bias toward CBS," Snow said.
Dobrow added that Couric is a particularly good fit with this year's topic.
"We wanted to be able to talk with her about how journalism is changing and how journalists need to adapt to the technologies of today," Dobrow said. "Because of Katie Couric's imminent departure from CBS Evening News, there is a lot of interest."
Sources at CBS told the Associated Press earlier this month that Couric would be leaving her post when her contract expires in June, after five years at the network. She has not yet disclosed her plans, but it is expected that she will host her own syndicated talk show after she is done with her tenure as the first−ever female anchor of a nightly network news broadcast.
Snow added that this year's topic itself is also meant to reflect the current changing nature of journalism.
"Journalism itself is changing dramatically, if not radically," Snow said. "Webcasting and new media are changing things a lot for newspapers and broadcast networks because, by contrast, new media is built around citizen journalism without the professional background of a trained journalist. The choice of the title [of the forum] is to reflect that it is a changing moment for traditional journalism and the future is somewhat opaque."
This year's forum will also feature a change in format from previous years. As opposed to a number of speakers addressing the audience as panelists, the forum will feature an interview−style dialogue between Couric and Tisch. Snow explained the reason for the change.
"Julie [Dobrow] and I agree that it's a good idea to change the pace," he said. "We're both interested in effective communication, and what is effective one year is not necessarily effective another year. We try different techniques to get ideas out in interesting and compelling ways. We're hoping to try different things all within the umbrella of Edward R. Murrow."
In the interest of effective communication, CMS recently posted a Wikipedia page about the forum. Jillian Slutzker, a student at the Fletcher School and part−time employee of CMS, was instrumental in the creation of the page. Slutzker said that part of the purpose of the page is to spread information about the forum outside the Tufts community.
"We have pages for other CMS events, and since the Murrow Forum is the biggest, we decided to get the name out there and if people are curious, then they can go there. It's not just a Tufts or Fletcher audience, so people outside of the Tufts community can find out about it," Slutzker said.
