Journalism

Journalism

The family’s legacy of responsible reporting, and its roots in Dow Jones and its flagship publication, The Wall Street Journal, informed several family gifts.

Supporting Ethics and Engagement

In 1983, the Trust made a grant of $750,000 toward the establishment of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The Shorenstein Center explores the intersection of press, politics, and public policy in theory and practice, striving to bridge the gaps between journalists, scholars, and the public. In the last few years, some of those dollars have been used to fund the Journalist’s Resource – an online, searchable database which examines new and controversial topics through a research lens. The Journalist’s Resource promotes the concept of knowledge-based reporting that can inform public discourse and help ground journalists as they explore difficult topics.

The Cox Trust has also made significant contributions as part of the family’s overall giving, now in excess of $5 million, to the Bancroft Family Ethics Center, a permanent exhibit at the Newseum in Washington D.C. As the world’s leading museum dedicated to journalism, the Newseum operates multiple initiatives aimed at informing the public about freedom of the press and freedom of expression. The Bancroft Center offers visitors an interactive, challenging look at dilemmas journalists face in their reporting, using real-life scenarios to highlight the hard ethical questions that permeate the field. The journalistic legacy of the Bancroft family is, in part, to promote an informed and educated society, critical for a healthy democracy and dialogue.