Mass Comm Week brings media issues to campus |
Daniel Toberman |
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Mass Comm Week 2001 begins Monday and will bring people from several media to campus to participate in discussions, debates and presentations. Mass Comm Week will run from Monday through Thursday, April 26th. The event anticipated to receive the largest turnout will be on April 26, when a debate on the role of the media in today's society will be held. As part of the Arts and Issues series, "The Role of the Media in Youth Violence: Scapegoat or Co-Conspirator?" will feature Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberaties Union, and Jack Thompson, an attorney who has made a living prosecuting cases that involve obscenity and violence in popular culture. This topic covers many explosive areas, and Arts and Issues Coordinator Rich Walker said he expects some exciting exchanges. "Nadine Strossen and Jack Thompson are two dynamic personalities who provide thought-provoking insight into a very real issue debated today throughout the country," Walker said. "Whatever side you take, this debate about the effect pop culture has on America's youth is an important matter for all of us to consider." Strossen became president of the ACLU in 1991, and since then has become one of the most influential lawyers in America, according to several law journals and magazines including Vanity Fair, who named her one of America's 200 most influential women. Thompson has been working as an attorney since 1977, but gained fame because of his involvement in the "2 Live Crew" federal obscenity trial which resulted in the first recording in American history to be declared obscene. The debate will be at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in the Meridian Ballroom of the Morris University Center and will cost $4 for students and $8 for the public. Students will have a chance to meet with Strossen and Thompson earlier at 5 p.m. in the Meridian Ballroom. Other events set for Mass Comm week are presentations by former Chicago Tribune investigative reporter Bill Recktenwald and Will Doherty, executive director of Online Policy Group. Recktenwald will speak about investigative reporting at 10 a.m. Monday in Katherine Dunham Hall Room 2039. Doherty will talk about Internet filters at 2 p.m. Monday in Dunham Hall Room 2039 and again at 5 p.m. in Room 1015 about research and the use of online resources. There will be a panel discussion Tuesday about how new reporting techniques will affect privacy. Bob LaRouche, photo editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Safir Ahmed, editor of the Riverfront Times; John Butler, news director at KMOX radio station; and Fiona Hoey, assistant news director at KTVI television staion will be the panelists. The discussion will be at 1 p.m. in Dunham Hall Room 2039. On Wednesday an internship fair will be at 3 to 5 p.m. in the lobby of Dunham Hall. Representatives from international public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard, Fox 2 News, KMOX, The (Alton) Telegraph, Southwestern Bell and the St. Louis Science Center will be in attendance. In addition to the debate Thursday, there will be a presentation about covering crises given by anchor and talk show host Charles Jaco from KMOX radio at 11 a.m. in Dunham Hall Room 1020. | |