The rise of the Internet has ushered in an era where many Americans, particularly young people, are increasingly turning to non-traditional forms of media, such as online newspapers and magazines, Twitter and You Tube, for their news. Many have praised the Internet as an open, democratic forum, free from the horizontally integrated media companies that control traditional news gathering and dissemination. However, widespread inaccessibility to high speed internet across America, due to poor broadband infrastructure, is interfering with the Internet’s democratic capabilities. What does the future hold for universal Internet access, and, in turn, America ’s mediascape?
Panelists Include:
Timothy Karr Campaign Director for Free Press and SavetheInternet.com
Jan Schaffer Executive Director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism
John Windhausen Communications Attorney and Policy Analyst, Telepoly Consulting
Moderated by:
Peter Osnos Senior Fellow for Media Programs, The Century Foundation
The Public Policy Lunch Series is a program hosted by The Century Foundation for NYC interns and young adults with an interest in public policy.
Bio
Mr. Timothy Karr
Campaign Director for Free Press and SavetheInternet.com
Peter Osnos
Peter Osnos is the Founder and Editor-at-Large of PublicAffairs books. Previously, he was Publisher of Random House's Times Books Division from 1991 to 1996 and before that was a Vice President and Associate Publisher of the Random House imprint. Authors he has worked with include President Bill Clinton, former President Jimmy Carter, Rosalyn Carter, Nancy Reagan, former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, Boris Yeltsin, Paul Volcker, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Donald Trump, Clark Clifford, Sam Donaldson, Morley Safer, Peggy Noonan, Molly Ivins, Stanley Karnow, Jim Lehrer, William Novak, Vassily Aksyonov, and journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and The Economist.
Before entering book publishing, Osnos spent nearly twenty years at The Washington Post, where he was variously Indochina Bureau Chief, Moscow Correspondent, Foreign Editor, National Editor, and London Bureau Chief. He has been a commentator and host for National Public Radio and a contributor to publications including Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, and The New Republic. He served as Chair of the Trade Division of the Association of American Publishers, Chair of Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia Committee and was a member of the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch. He is currently the Vice-Chairman of The Columbia Journalism Review and Executive Director of The Caravan Project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation and based at TCF. A graduate of Brandeis University and the Columbia University School of Journalism, he lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with his wife, Susan Osnos, who is a consultant for nonprofit organizations.
Jan Schaffer
Jan Schaffer, former Business Editor and a Pulitzer Prize winner for The Philadelphia Inquirer, is executive director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism and one of the nation's leading thinkers in the journalism reform movement.
She left daily journalism in 1994 to lead pioneering journalism initiatives in the areas of civic journalism, interactive and participatory journalism and citizen media ventures. She launched J-Lab in 2002 at the University of Maryland's College of Journalism to help newsrooms use innovative computer technologies to engage people in important public issues.
Mr. John Windhausen
Communications Attorney and Policy Analyst, Telepoly Consulting
member. 
