From the Director

The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, part of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, works to promote serious, probing analysis of how the news media affect politics and public policy in the United States and around the world.

We see our job as shining a spotlight on the media's influence and performance. Our objective is to provide clear-eyed understanding of how the media do what they do, and recommend action that we hope will improve that performance.

At the Shorenstein Center we want our work to be of value to journalists, policymakers, scholars and business leaders — the key players in shaping the society in which we live.

Alex S. Jones
Director