About the Author
About the Author
Michael R. Fancher is a co-convenor of Journalism That Matters Pacific Northwest, an effort to improve the news and information health of communities in the Pacific Northwest. He is an investor in and a member of the Journalism Advisory Board of Intersect, a web platform to enhance people’s ability to share stories. He is also vice president of the Washington Coalition for Open Government and serves on an advisory committee to the Fordham University Graduate School of Business.
Fancher retired from The Seattle Times in 2008 after 20 years as executive editor. During his tenure as executive editor The Times won four Pulitzer Prizes and was a Pulitzer finalist 13 other times. After retiring he served as a 2008-2009 Donald W. Reynolds Fellow in the Missouri School of Journalism. In 2009, he was a contributing writer to the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy and author of the 2009 Aspen Institute Forum on Communications and Society report. Also in 2009, the Western Washington Chapter of the SPJ cited Fancher for Distinguished Service to Journalism.
He received a B.A. in journalism from the University of Oregon, a Masters in Communication from Kansas State University, and his MBA from the University of Washington. In 2002 he was inducted in the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication Hall of Achievement.
The Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program
The Communications and Society Program is an active venue for global leaders and experts to exchange new insights on the societal impact of digital technology and network communications. The Program also creates a multi-disciplinary space in the communications policy making world where veteran and emerging decision makers can explore new concepts, find personal growth, and develop new networks for the betterment of society.
The Program’s projects fall into one or more of three categories: communications and media policy, digital technologies and democratic values, and network technology and social change. Ongoing activities of the Communications and Society Program include annual roundtables on journalism and society (e.g., journalism and national security), communications policy in a converged world (e.g., the future of international digital economy), the impact of advances in information technology (e.g., “when push comes to pull”), and serving the information needs of communities. The Program has taken a deeper look at community information needs through the work of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, a project of the Aspen Institute and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Program also convenes the Aspen Institute Forum on Communications and Society, in which chief executive-level leaders of business, government and the non-profit sector examine issues relating to the changing media and technology environment.
Most conferences utilize the signature Aspen Institute seminar format: approximately 25 leaders from a variety of disciplines and perspectives engage in roundtable dialogue, moderated with the objective of driving the agenda to specific conclusions and recommendations.
Conference reports and other materials are distributed to key policymakers and opinion leaders within the United States and around the world. They are also available to the public at large through the World Wide Web, http://www.aspeninstitute.org/c&s.
The Program’s executive director is Charles M. Firestone, who has served in that capacity since 1989, and has also served as executive vice president of the Aspen Institute. He is a communications attorney and law professor, formerly director of the UCLA Communications Law Program, first president of the Los Angeles Board of Telecommunications Commissioners, and an appellate attorney for the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
