• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Another area for which redesigned doctoral programs can prepare students is radio. With the emergence of the Internet, radio has gone online. Traditional radio is losing listeners as fast as newspapers are losing readers. Recognizing the urgency of the problem, WNYC, the largest public radio station in the country, has recently diversified by purchasing three new stations and entered into an agreement with Univision, a Spanish-language television network. More important, the radio station has decided to expand its website (www.wnyc.org) and to integrate all aspects of its programming online. This new medium will offer streaming radio broadcasts from all of its four stations with additional text, images and video programming on an on-demand basis. While continuing to report the news in the traditional NPR style on the radio and online, WNYC also offers a rich array of music and cultural programs. This ambitious agenda creates the need for much more high-quality programming than the station is able to produce.

As we were developing our media program for the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life, we recognized WNYC’s new needs and contacted them regarding the possibility of collaborating to provide material about religion and public affairs. We are currently in the process of discussing an agreement with WNYC and have begun conversations with Public Radio International (PRI) for wider distribution of programs we develop. This collaboration would begin with thirteen one-hour programs based on events sponsored at the Institute. We are developing carefully edited versions of Institute lectures, presentations and interviews. Our first program is a series of conversations with writers on “Literature and Terror.” Contributors include Salman Rushdie, Paul Auster, Jonathan Safran Foer, Uzodinma Iweala, Dalia Sofer and Philip Gourevitch. The second is a similar series of conversations with journalists, including Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek, and David Shipley, Nicholas Kristof and James Traub from The New York Times. We are also preparing in-depth interviews for broadcast with Thomas Krens, former director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; philosopher Charles Taylor; and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jack Miles. Our discussions have made it clear that as WNYC expands and diversifies its offerings, programs will require a rich array of written texts, images and videos to supplement audio transmissions. We are exploring ways in which we can work with graduate students and undergraduates to provide this new material. I remain optimistic that we will be able to develop innovative programs, but we face three major obstacles. The first is financial—to create programs with the production values necessary for distribution on major media outlets requires expensive equipment and people with the necessary technical expertise. We do not have adequate funds to cover these expenses and are now exploring the possibility of foundation support for our media program. The second problem is a symptom of some of the difficulties in higher education I have been discussing. While my codirector, Alfred Stepan, and I are convinced of the importance of a sophisticated multimedia program, some of our colleagues do not think this initiative is worth the money or the effort. They insist that we should be supporting more traditional programs like seminars, academic conferences and lectures, monograph publication and graduate student fellowships. These activities are, of course, important and will continue to be a part of the Institute’s mission, but they are not enough. It is essential to explore new opportunities for creative expression that will result in programs that extend conversations beyond universitywalls. Finally, many graduate students recognize the reservations of their professors and are reluctant to devote precious time and energy to work that is not directly related to the requirements for their degree. Even when they want to develop new