Media Curious

Karen Kring talks to National Public Radio’s Cheryl Corley

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In episode 7 of Media Curious award-winning journalist Cheryl Corley talks about what it means to cover the Midwest and beyond for National Public Radio’s national desk, serve as one of the outlet’s criminal justice reporters, the time Chicago got “out-Chicagoed”, and other memorable stories.

Media Curious collaborators include Chicago Public Square, The Eventors, CAN TV and the lovely and talented Jane Ricciardi who through her post-production skills adds polish to each episode.

Karen Kring started Media Curious in June 2020 to help bridge the gap between the media-consuming public and “the media”. Karen believes the media, the news media specifically, tend to be individuals who’ve dedicated themselves to being a conduit for the truth, to accurately reflect facts they’ve learned while covering their beats. That said, Media Curious lets the public make up their own minds. Karen talks to news media workers about their jobs, what goes on behind the scenes in their newsrooms and their perceptions about the industry in the current era.

To learn about new episodes minutes after they go live, subscribe to the Media Curious YouTube channel and/or the Media Curious Facebook group.

Other journalists interviewed include Garrard McClendon, Dorothy Tucker, Mary Schmich, Phil Vettel, Tracy Baim and Maudlyne Ihejirika.

Karen Kring interviews Chicago Sun-Times’ Maudlyne Ihejirika for Media Curious

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Karen Kring here: I’d been sharing news stories that offer glimpses into what it means to be a journalist in this day and age on Twitter via @Media_Curious for a few years now.

It has been my ambition to start a podcast that would offer the public the chance to know Chicago area news and media workers better, get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into some news rooms and to gain some perspective on what media is about in the 21st century.

I still might do the podcast, but upon getting familiar with Zoom’s technology, I chose to start with video.

So at last at the end of May I did my first interview with my friend and colleague Maudlyne Ihejirika.

She is an award-winning columnist with the Chicago Sun-Times. She writes the paper’s Chicago Chronicles, long-form columns on what makes the city click. She recently penned a book about her family’s survival during the Nigerian-Biafran War and the miracles that brought them to the U.S. in 1969, Escape from Nigeria: A Memoir of Faith, Love and War.

Joe Ricketts shutters DNAinfo and Gothamist

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November 2, 2017: A day that will be infamous in U.S. journalism history.

Below is what DNAinfo, staff, readers and advertisers were greeted by when they went to DNAinfo’s New York City and Chicago website that Thursday.

More about this from…

Crain’s Chicago Business’ Lynne Marek: DNAinfo Chicago shuts down

NPR: Billionaire Owner Shuts Down DNAinfo, Gothamist Sites A Week After Workers UnionizeAndreaVWatson

Chicago Tribune’s Robert Channick: DNAinfo, Gothamist news sites shut down by billionaire Joe Ricketts after union vote

Chicago Sun-Times’ Mitchell Armentrout: Joe Ricketts closes DNAinfo after blasting ‘corrosive’ union dynamic

New York Times: DNAinfo and Gothamist Are Shut Down After Vote to Unionize

New York Times: A Billionaire Destroyed His Newsrooms Out of Spite

Joe Rickett’s Blog: Why I’m Against Unions At Business I Create

Andrea V. Watson: My Company Abruptly Shutdown; Now What?

Newsweek: Gothamist and DNAinfo Are the Latest Victims of the Billionaire War on Journalism

WTTW’s Chicago Tonight: DNAinfo and the Challenge of Hyperlocal News

Jocelyn Geboy: How The Dismantling Of DNA Info And Chicagoist Hurt Us All

 DNAinfo

Chicago Public Radio’s Goli Sheikholeslami on the impact of smart, real journalism

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Goli Sheikholeslami, CEO of Chicago Public Radio, explained why strong, non-partisan journalism matters to the health and wealth of our communities, our country and every citizen during the City Club of Chicago lunch program on May 25, 2017.

Shannon Heffernan and her story Excruciating Choice: Trading Parental Custody for Mental Health Care was mentioned as an example of a story that helped move the State of Illinois to act to stop psychiatric lockouts and helped legislators access data about lockout previous unattainable. (Heffernan’s work garnered a 2017 Lisagor Award.)

Sheikholeslami also mentioned an investigation that revealed that more than 300 young people were kept at Cook County Juvenile Detention Center for for as long as a week after release orders were signed. One young man waited 190 days for DCFS to pick in up. Due to that report, a monitoring system is in place and fewer young people are stuck in jail needlessly.

She also shared the audio from a story about why people pick up guns.

Distrust of media, threats to our fragile media landscape, drastic newsroom staffs reductions and their affects our country were discussed, as well as the opportunities and threats that lies ahead for hers and other media outlets.

Hear her whole 30+ min. address here.

Crain’s Lynn Marek talked to Goli in 2015.