Annenberg Scholar and Author
Tuesday, March 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Wanamaker Auditorium

Keith S. Collins’ most recent book is The Christian Science Monitor: Its History, Mission, and People. 

The Monitor has been an influential international news organization for more than a hundred years. It has received seven Pulitzer Prizes and more than a dozen Overseas Press Club awards. In 2009, it took the groundbreaking step of shifting to a daily online presence with a weekly print magazine. Readers around the world have long admired the Monitor for its dedication to journalism that uplifts humanity, but many have questioned why a church publishes a newspaper at all. Collins’ talk will take a look at the paper’s purpose and examine a question that has challenged both journalists and readers over the years: What exactly is Monitor journalism?

Collins’ book, which emerged from nearly a decade of interviews and original-source research, focuses on stories of people who have helped make the Monitor what it is. These people range from the newspaper’s founder Mary Baker Eddy, through some of the editors and reporters who have given it international stature, to a few of today’s Monitor journalists. 

In one way or another, all these people have wrestled with the question, What is Monitor journalism?  The answers have been surprisingly varied, and twice they almost brought the paper to its knees. Whether today’s news organization has finally hit the sweet spot of Monitor journalism remains to be seen, but with millions of visitors now coming to its website each month, the signs are promising.

Collins will be available for questions at the end of his talk.