A new book about the future of journalism, written as a companion guide to the just-released documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times, concludes with an essay by School of Journalism director Geneva Overholser (pictured, below right).

The book, edited by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik, includes more than a dozen essays about the industry’s future, written by a who’s who of news media: David Carr and Scott Shane of The New York Times; Jenny 8. Lee, a former front line innovator at the Times; Alberto Ibarguen of the Knight Foundation; former Los Angeles Times publisher James O’Shea; former AOL executive James Bankoff; Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune; Emily Bell and Gordon Crovitz; and Kelly McBride of The Poynter Institute.

From publisher PublicAffairs:  “The news media is in the middle of a revolution. Old certainties have been shoved aside by new entities such as WikiLeaks and Gawker, Politico and the Huffington Post. But where, in all this digital innovation, is the future of great journalism? Is there a difference between an opinion column and a blog, a reporter and a social networker? Who curates the news, or should it be streamed unimpeded by editorial influence?”

Overholser’s chapter, “The News Belongs to the Public,” explores the role citizens play in the revolution of news – as well as the responsibility the industry has to bring the principles of journalism to the new media environment.

She writes: “As we lament the changes and slog along in this limited conversation about the future of news, others are busy creating it. People are tweeting and blogging, collaborating and forming social networks, posting about goings-on in their own neighborhoods here or abroad, and generally using new technologies and emerging communities to share information in the public interest. This emerging media ecology is essentially defining the future of news.”

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