During the past thirteen years, since founding the literary and environmental journal Wild Duck Review, the question of how news journalism does or does not serve the public has riveted my attention—and it is quickly emerging as one of the defining challenges of our time.

As the authors of PEW's 2007 State of News Media note, the changes taking place inside news media are epochal. Technology platforms are shifting (with 92 million Americans going online for their news), and once-captive audiences are now taking responsibility and command over the news being sought. At the same time, old business models are collapsing and risk aversion is setting in. Much of the news produced is taking the "shape of branding, targeting and diminished ambitions."

Since launching the Institute for Inquiry's (IFI's) website ten weeks ago, IFI has received 110K+ hits from persons around the world (IFI's Soundscapes film trailer accompanied several google news stories in English and French, and academic and professional listservs have spread the word generously).

Responses have been excited, old ideas shaken up—which is precisely what we'd hoped for. If you haven't, please read: Changing the News.

IFI's first inquiry, "A Wireless Age?" asks questions that have yet to appear in today's news media. What is known about exposures

to natural or manmade electromagnetic fields (EMFs) within complex ecologies and urban settings? Why are leading scientists urging the establishment of new safety standards? What does it mean to live within physical and virtual realities, one seamlessly shaping the other? How are biological and cultural diversities at stake? How do wireless technologies enable learning that would not have been possible otherwise?

IFI's inquiry process, deep and broad, will unfold over the coming year. IFI's first lead contributors (see below), initiate questioning in fields as diverse as bio-acoustic research, philosophy, EMF science, and law.

Additionally, you are invited to customize your current projects (academic, professional, educational, or artistic) in response to Network Invitations. Please see invitations below and contributor guidelines.

Your best connection to IFI is with our E-News, which announces new interviews, essays, research data, literary and artistic productions via email. Please sign up.

Finally, your donations will directly support our capacity to work. While IFI received early seed monies, individual and foundation support remains critical to the work immediately ahead. Tax-deductible donations may be made online, or by mail.

Thank you, and a warm welcome—
Casey Walker
Director & Editor

"SOUNDSCAPES"
As personal technologies become commonplace, so too do customized soundscapes. Each of us can choose whatever and to whomever we prefer to listen, almost wherever and whenever we'd like. At the same time, natural soundscapes (biophonies) are being extinguished by noise pollution and habitat loss, along with the indigenous ways of life dependent upon them. For the first time in history it is both possible and crucial to ask how can we become more aware, not less, of the soundscapes we listen to. Explore: www.instituteforinquiry.org/inquiries/soundscapes.php

"EMF SCIENCE"
Unbeknownst to most Americans, not a single U.S. research lab is currently funded to look for a relationship between cell phone use and physical, biological harm in humans or living ecologies—and such has been the case for years. Begin exploring systemic problems in EMF Science, which include data that is fabricated to serve its funders' interests; data that is rejected because it doesn't fit within prevailing theory; and, data that is kept from the public realm for nonscientific reasons, such as national security. Explore: www.instituteforinquiry.org/inquiries/EMF science.php

"GOING WIRELESS: DISENGAGING THE ETHICAL LIFE?"
As we use personalized, wireless technologies (cell phones, laptops, and iPods), what is happening to our attention? How aware are we of interactions stripped down, bereft of the sensory cues that occur in the presence of one another? Do other persons' needs, and whole ecologies' needs, grow less perceptible to us and our responses more arbitrary? How is personal choice tied to our lived bodies and lived experiences in ways that are made observable for the first time through uses of wireless technologies? Explore: www.instituteforinquiry.org/inquiries/wireless.php

"THE PUBLIC TRUST DOCTRINE"
As wireless technologies open the air spectrum to human use, cascades of biological and cultural changes are set into motion that rarely receive public notice or due consideration. All too often, unacceptable dead body counts or irreversible losses must occur before the public wakes up and acts. The Public Trust Doctrine offers a legal framework for recognizing, defending, and supervising the ecology of the air. Explore: www.instituteforinquiry.org/inquiries/public_trust_doctrine.php