September 2, 2011
For two months this summer, Columbia University’s News21 team traveled the country reporting, for the second year in a row, on aging America. Massive demographic shifts over the next 40 years will transform everything from family life and health care to employment and housing. Columbia News21's Brave Old World site goes live today, Friday, September 2.Few changes will have as seismic an effect on the United States as the rate at which it's growing old. The unprecedented proportion of older adults means change in every corner of our lives: our families, our workplaces, our communities.The team continued to explore the demographic shift that affects the country, traveling to eight states, interviewing gerontologists, economists, biostatisticians and other experts. The stories the reporters produced are told through text, photos, interactive graphics, video and audio. They raise questions about how people in this country live, work and support one another as we age.Today, the aging workplace package appears on http://www.washingtonpost.com/, and it appears in print in the Sunday, September 4 issue of The Washington Post.Weeks before the site went live, stories from the News 21 fellows were picked up by major news organizations.Columbia's Brave Old World report is part of the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education, led by 12 of America's leading universities and supported by two major foundations. Eight schools create News21 incubators, annual national reporting projects overseen by campus professors and distributed nationally through both traditional and innovative media.Prof. Paula Span was a guest on the radio show “Weekday,” talking about elder care in America.
