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CJR Podcast: The Wire’s David Simon
The Wire creator talks about the series, urban reporting, and, yes, the future of journalism
By The EditorsIn the January/February issue of Columbia Journalism Review, we explored the challenges journalists face portraying cities in a way that both explains their systemic problems and illuminates their residents’ humanity. Our cover story, “Secrets of the City,” profiled The Wire creator David Simon—himself a former city reporter for the Baltimore Sun—in the context of journalism, asking how wide an angle reporters should use in framing their narratives of urban life.
On Wednesday, March 26, Simon spoke to students at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, discussing The Wire, whose final season recreates a fictionalized Sun, and the challenges—reportorial, financial, ethical—that paper’s reporters face. In journalism, explaining “the who, the what, the where, the when, and the how” are relatively easy, Simon told his audience. “The why,” however, “is epic. The why is where journalism becomes an adult game.”
A podcast of the talk is available here. Enjoy.
CJR
cameron t![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.cjr.org/nav-commenters.gif)
Sun 27 Apr 2008 11:27 PMThe link you posted isn't actually a podcast. Its a streaming audio recording, meaning it can't actually be downloaded and played on ipods (or other music players). Also, its difficult to access from other countries (like China) because of the apparent slowness of the qtstreaming server you're using to host it.
Would it be possible to post an .mp3 of David's talk?
Thanks,
Cameron