I am the new director of a new journalism and society think-tank with not one, but two University Departments attached.
This blog will be a chance for me to air my opinions on the relationship between journalists and the society they report on.
If you are a journalist, a student, academic or someone who cares about journalism and the effect it has, then I hope you will read and respond to what we put on here.
And I hope that you will click on the links on the right that will take you through to the full Polis website or you can go to the websites of the two Universities who are backing Polis. The London School of Economics and the London College of Communications both have media and communications departments. Polis will be the focus of new courses at both Universities in the near future.
But the public face of Polis will be its programme of lectures, seminars, research and events that start from this autumn. We will bring significant and controversial figures from the media to talk about their role in society. And we will get important public figures to talk about what they think about the way that the media deals with the world. And then we will get them to talk to each other! Go to the Polis website to get more information about that.
I spent 20 years working for some of the best news and current affairs programmes at the BBC, LWT and ITN. I went in to journalism because I think that it really matters how our world is reported. With all the technological and commercial changes in journalism and all the social, environmental and political changes in society, I think that journalism matters even more now.
If you care – get in touch and join the Polis debate. Go to the Polis webpages or email me on c.h.beckett@lse.ac.uk