Faherty Laboratory Hosts National Conference

Media and Terrorism is the theme of a national midwinter conference that The Michael J. Faherty Broadcast Management Laboratory will host for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in February 2002. The conference will draw faculty, graduate students, and media professionals from across the country to discuss current research and instructional and professional issues in the field of mass communication.

The conference is co-sponsored by the Media Management and Economics; Radio Television Journalism; Communication Technology & Policy; Visual Communication; and Civic Journalism divisions of AEJMC. Co-hosting the conference with the Michael J. Faherty Laboratory and providing additional support are the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication and the Cox Institute for Newspaper Management Studies.Two plenary sessions will highlight the conference. The first, the theme session on Media and Terrorism, will focus on professional and public interest issues that arise when the media cover terrorism. The panel will feature presentations by Tim Lister, Vice President of CNN International, who just returned from four weeks in Afghanistan, Sheila Tefft, Emory University professor and former south Asia correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, Dr. Leonard Ray Teel, director of the Center for International Media Education at Georgia State, and Bert Roughton Jr., Crisis Editor for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A second plenary panel will address the question of whether, and how, university journalism and mass communication programs should adapt their curricula in response to new technologies and the convergence of the media's industry. The session is titled "Technology and the Journalism Curriculum: Does Convergence Require Changes in How We Teach?"

Featured speakers for the session include Kurt Greenbaum, mid-Atlantic general manager for Media General Interactive, responsible for web site operations at six television stations in the region and the Morning News in Florence, SC; Professor Conrad Fink, Director of the Cox Institute for Newspaper Management Studies; and John B. (Jack) Zibluk, an assistant professor and coordinator of the photojournalism sequence at Arkansas State University and education coordinator for the National Press Photographers' Association's national convention last year.

Thirty-seven research papers by journalism and mass communication scholars from around the U.S. also will be presented during the two-day conference. The papers, which were accepted after a blind, competitive peer review, will be presented and discussed in nine research panels, some of which will occur concurrently. The research will focus on issues of media coverage of terrorism, various aspects of visual communication, civic journalism, new technologies, electronic journalism, and media management and economics.

The conference will close with a "Breakfast With Senior Scholars" session that will discuss the future of mass communication scholarship and a number of professional issues such as career development for scholars and educators. The Midwinter conference will run from February 8-10. Sessions will be held in both the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

Early registration for the conference is available until January 25. Registration and travel information are available through the links on this page.

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