About

About the Project

What is the News21 Project?
By John Andrews

The Project on News in the 21st Century, conducted by Colorado Christian University through its Centennial Institute think tank, was launched in July 2011 as a joint initiative in classroom instruction and civic engagement to address the growing concerns of … Continue reading →


A Force No One Can Escape
By Jay Ambrose

Back in 1835, in his great book Democracy in America, the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville announced something he found in this country that “actually surpasses belief” – the extraordinary number of periodical and occasional publications. Fast forward to the 21st … Continue reading →


Media Losing Their Way
By Stephen Keating

“Be seekers of truth” is one of the strategic objectives of Colorado Christian University. It also is – or should be – the purpose of journalism. Yet, today we see the news media losing their way, fractured by technology and … Continue reading →


For an Informed and Participative Citizenry
By John Dendahl

Natural human interest in the salacious apparently spans at least two millennia. Virgil’s Aeneid (25 B.C.) remarks upon “rumor, than whom no other evil thing is faster.”[1] Already in the 1860s, C.H. Spurgeon could cite as an “old proverb” the … Continue reading →

News21 Blog

It all started when he hit me back
By John Andrews

You don’t have to care about where President Obama was born (and I don’t, it’s utterly moot) to find it newsworthy that he and his sponsors and handlers are and long have been (newest dateline, 1991) willing to endlessly, shamelessly … Continue reading →


 Speaking of uncivil
By Barton Winfield

Newspapers are free to take sides, always have been.  But what happened to the journalistic convention of separating the editorial page from the news columns, and flagging on the latter any departure from just-the-facts as “analysis” or “opinion”?   The … Continue reading →


 Do Colo. pundits favor GOP over Dems?
By John Andrews

Major print and broadcast outlets in Colorado allegedly feature a lot more commentators who tout the Republican party (me included) than those who tout the Democratic party.  So says local media critic Jason Salzman of BigMedia.com in a recent Huffpo … Continue reading →


 Bias in eye of beholder?
By John Andrews

Everybody knows we tend to see what we’re looking for, play up the evidence that matches our expectations and discount the contrary evidence.  So does that trope color conservatives’ (or liberals’) perception of media bias?  Curtis Hubbard, Denver Post editorial … Continue reading →


 Inflaming, not informing; rooting, not reporting
By John Andrews

Mike Rosen calls out media’s malpractice on Florida shooting with doctored audio, dishonest photos, and all-around “hoodie journalism.” http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_20327311/hoodie-journalism