Episode #10: Media and Democracy

The January broadcast of Reform Radio features one of three conversations with Ohio University Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Algis Mickunas. Mickunas is world renowned for his scholarship on contemporary European philosophy, Marxism, phenomenology and hermeneutics. In this segment Mickunas discusses the relationship of the media and a healthy, functioning American democracy. Mickunas says that democracy requires an active, involved citizenry that keeps an eye on not only its elected representatives but its media as well. "If we don't participate, democracy is gone. Democracy doesn't grow on trees, doesn't sit in some sort of a brain cell," says Mickunas. Mickunas explains how and why citizens must be involved with their governments in order to legitimate them and keep them focused on the people's business and how media is intimately involved in the political process. He also outlines how media have neglected their roles as the constitutionally privileged, so-called "fourth estate."

Episode #9: Karen Zolka

The December broadcast of Reform Radio features an interview with Karen Zolka, a graduating E.W. Scripps of Journalism senior. Zolka, who earned an foreign correspondent internship with the Associated Press, goes to Israel in January 2009. Her interest in the news and journalism, she says, began as a child in elementary school and continued through her high school education, during which she studied television journalism and had several internships. Zolka also was the president of the Society of Professional Journalists at Scripps for two years. She talks about her journalism education and her vision of how journalism should serve the public.

CounterPost (replay of Episode #7)

The November broadcast of Reform Radio is a rebroadcast of Episode #7, "CounterPost," (see below) featuring retired E.W. Scripps School of Journalism professor Thomas Hodges and Velma Lopez and Brittany Benton of the Latino Student Union. This episode of Reform Radio was originally broadcast Sept. 21, 2008.

Episode #8: mephisto radio (Leipzig University)

The October broadcast of Reform Radio features guests from mephisto radio, a student radio station at Leipzig University (Germany). Christoph Peters and Miriam Behrendt were part of a group of faculty and students who traveled to the United States in September to cover the 2008 election, as well as to visit student media operations and take part in classes at Ohio University. Peters and Behrendt also discuss the changes that have taken place in Germany since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

Episode 8 podcast

Episode #7: CounterPost

The September broadcast of Reform Radio features a lively conversation about a controversial column, “Broad Stripes and Bright Stars: America’s party being crashed since the first settlers left England,” published in Ohio University’s student newspaper, The Post, in 2007. The column, by Chris Yonker, generated vigorous, critical protests and responses from OU’s Latino Student Union, students and faculty, as well as defenses of Yonker’s column. To its credit, a considerable number of these were published in The Post. Reform Radio invited persons from both sides of the controversy to join in on a conversation about the column. Although Reform Radio invited Yonker, Post editors, and members of The Post’s editorial board, all declined. Joining the show were Velma Lopez and Brittany Benton of the Latino Student Union and retired E.W. Scripps School of Journalism professor Thomas Hodges.

The Post’s editorial position on the column can be read here.

Episode 7 podcast

Episode #6: Education and Democracy

The August broadcast of Reform Radio, featured Ohio University Emeritus Professor of Philosophy Algis Mickunas, who discussed the importance of education, which he considers the "fifth estate," to democracy. Mickunas has written several books and articles about democracy, tracing its roots back to Athens, Greece. A truly educated populace, say democratic theorists as Mickunas, is crucial for the maintenance of an effectively functioning democracy. In addition, throughout the show, several questions are posed from a quiz on freedom of speech. You can download the brief quiz and answers.

Episode 6 podcast

Episode #5: John Felton

The July broadcast of Reform Radio featured John Felton, a 1975 OU graduate and freelance writer and editor. Felton has practiced journalism for almost 40 years, beginning in 1970 covering Dayton city hall for the Journal Herald, reporting on foreign affairs for the Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C., through the 1980s, and was a foreign desk editor and assignment editor for National Public Radio in the early 1990s. He also published a 730-page history of the Middle East in 2007. Since 2003 he has conducted quarterly reviews of its news coverage for NPR.

Reform Radio talked with Felton about his journalism career, particularly his roots in Ohio and his evaluations of NPR’s coverage of sensitive news and issues, such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the failure of American journalism in the lead-up to the Iraq war, and the Pentagon's military analyst program.

Episode 5 podcast