Exporting to the Basic TIF Model

Recall the basic elements of the TIF model. Broadcast transmission is not one of them, although the WHYY Radio Times connection has been a most welcome add-on. Neither are TIF’s video documentaries an essential element, though I am delighted that we have been able to show “highlights” videos of two of TIF’s most important events.

Perhaps the simplest way to run a TIF-like event is for two instructors, teaching at the same time, to bring their classes together as the nucleus for a public discussion or debate on a controversy of common interest to both. Journalism professor Pat Bradley and I did that before TIF was officially launched. At issue was the quality of media coverage in the first week of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. In private conversation it had become clear that a couple of Bradley’s students and I had different takes on the matter. Bradley moderated while I joined a student/faculty panel on the topic. Both classes profited, and so did the few people who came of their own accord. No executive committee was needed, no event advisory committee, no funding. Think of TIF as an extension of that pre-TIF experience.