Seven Wonders of Journalism

OK, now this is a cool idea.  Poynter is asking everyone to help select the “Seven Wonders of the Journalism World,”for fun and “to remind all of us of the historical forces that help us do our best work today;  and to articulate a set of enduring values that will help protect and advance journalism in unsettled times.”

From Poynter’s “Centerpiece” (sic) column:

We have created a process which, with your help, will produce a product, one that would teach journalism history interactively, reminding journalists of their glorious past — with an eye to the future.

The process will have three parts:

1.    We will ask you to help us nominate “Wonders” in six categories:

Documents (such as The First Amendment)
People (such as Walter Cronkite)
Institutions (such as the BBC)
Events (such as the publication of the Pentagon Papers)
Technology (such as the invention of the telegraph)
Works (such as the front page of the New York Times on Sept. 11)

We have decided that there should be no limits placed on these categories, that they can come from America or other countries, from Western or Eastern cultures.  They can be big and famous or they can be hiding in small places

2.    Let’s imagine that we get, say, 50 nominations for each category.  A Poynter group, with some outside help, would choose 10 finalists in each category.  We would then seed them, like a sports tournament.

3.    Then we would pair them and ask you, our readers, to vote.  The winner would advance to the next round of competition.

As we go along, we will add content.  Links. Bios. Timelines. Images. Sound. Video.  All of this adds to the development of an important and interesting educational resource.  We at Poynter hope you will offer nominations and cast your votes, and help build a resource that will teach and inspire us all.  
 
The eventual list of 85 can be found here.