Friday November 1, 2019
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Dampeer Room
Kelvin Smith Library*
Case Western Reserve University
Dear Colleagues:
Once upon a time – way back in 2013 – the Cleveland Plain Dealer was delivered to subscribers’ homes seven days a week. At the same time that delivery was cut back, nearly a third of the newsroom staff was eliminated.
That was one painful stage in a long transformation of the supply of information about local communities – in Cleveland and everywhere else. The Cleveland News closed in 1960; the Press in 1982. Television coverage in part supplanted newspapers and, according to the Knight Foundation, “the average local TV station now has more news employees than the average American newspaper,” but that may say more about newspapers than the quality of local television news, which has long been accused of sensationalism: “if it bleeds, it leads.”
News sources depend on audiences, paying customers, and advertising revenue. Each is being diverted, especially to internet sources and social media. Yet, meantime, the world goes on and institutions have stories to tell. Joe Frolik in his own career has been part of the transformations: from prize-winning reporter, columnist and editorial writer at the Plain Dealer, to leading communications for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, to executive editor of the Ideastream (radio and tv) newsroom and now to MetroHealth. We are very pleased to welcome him and discuss his views of what has happened and may come next.
All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies
About Our Guest
Joseph Frolik spent more than three decades at The Plain Dealer as a reporter, columnist, national correspondent and chief editorial writer. He received numerous honors, including two National Headliner Awards. He was named Best Editorial Writer in Ohio in 2012 for his editorials about the county’s corruption crisis, its efforts at reform and the launch of a new county government.
Frolik left The Plain Dealer in 2013 to lead communications and public policy at the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. There, he helped lead efforts to increase juvenile diversion programs, fight the opioid epidemic and decrease the number of dangerous, dilapidated properties in the county. For the last three years Joseph Frolick worked at Ideastream, leading the public media organization’s news and public affairs efforts as its executive editor before joining the MetroHealth system.
In 2017, Frolik was enshrined into the Cleveland Press Club’s Journalism Hall of Fame.
Where We Meet
The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convenes each Friday when classes are in session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Our programs are open to all and no registration is required. We usually meet in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library.
* Kelvin Smith Library requires all entrants to show identification when entering the building, unless they have a university i.d. that they can magnetically scan. We are sorry if that seems like a hassle, but it has been Library policy for a while in response to security concerns. Please do not complain to the library staff at the entrance, who are just doing their jobs.
Parking Possibilities
The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.
Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:
November 8: TBA. With Peter Shulman, Associate Professor of History.
November 15: Will We Ever Have Paris? The U.S. and the International Politics of Climate Change. With Matthew Hodgetts, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science.
November 22: The (New?) Israeli Government. With Peter J. Haas, Abba Hillel Silver Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies.
November 29: Thanksgiving break
December 6: Papers Please: Challenging Citizenship in the United States. With Cassandra Burke Robertson, John Deaver Drinko – Baker Hostetler Professor of Law and Director, Center for Professional Ethics. |
