Here's a much-anticipated look at the Region 4 conference on March 14-15 in Pittsburgh, including some information on hotels and speakers.
Stay tuned to the Pittsburgh chapter's Web site for more information, including a way to register online. The following info comes from Pittsburgh's Ginny Frizzi and her team:
Hotel: Omni
William Penn Hotel, in downtown Pittsburgh. Reserve online here.
Room Rate: $132 per night, plus tax
Hotel Parking Costs: $14 per
day (weekdays); $5 per day (weekend)Conference Registration:
Student: SPJ
Member: $65 Non-Member: $75
Pro: SPJ
Member: $85 Non-Member: $105
Checks
should be made out to “Pittsburgh Pro SPJ” and sent to Ginny
Frizzi, Office
of Media Relations, Point
Park University,
201 Wood
Street, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15222. Ginny
can be reached at (412) 392-3987 or vfrizzi@pointpark.edu
Note:
Registration deadline is March 10. $20 extra for late or
on-site registration.
Conference Theme: The
conference theme of “Digital Democracy” will explore how
the digital revolution--including blogs, online video, websites
and social media-are changing traditional news media coverage
and citizens' access to the political process.
Conference Program:
The conference will open with a reception at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 14
at the Allegheny/Harvard-Yale-Princeton, located within a short walking
distance of the hotel at the corner if William Penn Place and Strawberry Way.
On Saturday, March 15:
7:45-9 a.m. Breakfast
with Keynote Speaker
Two tracks with programs from
9:15-10:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.-Noon, with a coffee break between sessions.
Mark of Excellence Luncheon from
12:15-2 p.m.
Two tracks with programs from 2:15-3:30
p.m. and 3:45-5 p.m., with a coffee break between sessions.
Bob Mayo of WTAE-TV is serving as
program chair. He will be slotting the actual sessions and speakers very soon.
To date, we have:
Confirmed Speaker:
Jan Schaffer, executive director
J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive
Journalism
Topic: "Participatory
Journalism & Citizen Media ". Learn about the growth and content
of citizen media. "Local news web sites offering content generated by
users are securing a valuable place in the media landscape and are likely to
continue as important sources of community news", according to a
report by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism."
J-Lab is an incubator for innovative news experiments that use new technologies
to help people actively engage in critical public issues. Schaffer,
former Business Editor and a Pulitzer Prize winner for The Philadelphia
Inquirer, is executive director of J-Lab and one of the nation’s leading
thinkers in the journalism reform movement. She launched J-Lab in 2002 at the University of Maryland’s
College of Journalism to help newsrooms use
innovative computer technologies to inform people about important public
issues. The center spotlights new forms of digital storytelling on www.J-Lab.org. It rewards innovative practices through
the $16,000 Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism. It funds
cutting-edge citizen media start-ups through its New Voices project (www.J-NewVoices.org). It has also built a web
tutorial on how to launch community news sites (www.J-Learning.org)..
Schaffer will also speak about the
work of J-Lab.
Confirmed Speaker:
Matthew Sheffield, executive editor
NewsBusters.org
Invited Speaker: A representative of
MediaMatters.org. MediaMatters says it hopes to participate, but has not
confirmed yet, as of this writing. They hope to have an answer next week.
Topic: "Tables Turned: Online
Media Criticism from the Right and Left".
Representatives of political
websites discuss their organizations' role of critiquing the mainstream
news media via the web.
NewsBusters --a project of the Media
Research Center (MRC)-- describes itself as "the leader in documenting,
exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias." The MRC launched the
NewsBusters blog "to provide immediate exposure of liberal media bias, insightful
analysis, constructive criticism and timely corrections to news media
reporting."
Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit,
501(c)(3) progressive research and information center which describes itself as
"dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting
conservative misinformation in the U.S. media". Media
Matters works to systematically monitor a cross section of print, broadcast,
cable, radio, and Internet media outlets for "conservative
misinformation."
Confirmed Speaker:
Brad King assistant professor, Media
Informatics
Northern Kentucky University
Topic: "New Media: Journalism
2010". A presentation for journalists about "going
digital".
King will provide an overview of the
new technologies, and discuss what the modern newsroom needs to
look like to accommodate the web. He'll also talk about which new
skills journalists should --or should not learn. This session
will provide an overview of how new social technologies and integrated news departments
create new business models.
Confirmed Speaker*:
Toni Locy, Shott Chair of Journalism
West Virginia University
Former Reporter for USA Today
Topic: " Subpoenaed for Her
Sources: A Journalist's Story". Former USA Today reporter Toni Locy is the
subject of a contempt-of-court request by lawyers for Dr. Steven Hatfill for
her refusal to identify sources who provided information to her about the 2001
anthrax attacks and the subsequent investigation. Hatfill was publicly
identified by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft as a "person of
interest" in the investigation. Hatfill is suing the Department of Justice
for violating his Privacy Act rights by leaking information about him to
reporters.
A federal judge has ordered
Locy and four other journalists to reveal their sources. She and another
reporter face possible contempt charges for refusing to do so. Hatfill's
attorneys are seeking thousands of dollars in fines for which they want her to
be personally liable.
* If the subpoena against her is
resolved before the SPJ Region 4 Conference, Locy will talk about her
experiences in that case. She will address her concerns about the use of
"waivers" to get reporters out from under promises of confidentiality
to sources. Locy will also speak of the potential for people to use civil
lawsuits to go after reporters and, she fears, silence them. Locy will
also discuss developing your sources and the increasing legal dangers facing
reporters.
Confirmed Speaker:
David L. Marburger, a partner in the
Cleveland
office of Baker Hostetler. He is recognized as an authority on legal issues
related to the content side of the communications industry, particularly
constitutional law litigation (especially First Amendment rights of free speech
and freedom of the press, 14th Amendment, commercial speech, commerce clause),
libel and privacy, state and federal freedom of information and copyright.
Confirmed Speaker:
Teri Henning, General Counsel,
Pennsylvania Newspaper
Association (PNA). Henning , advises Pennsylvania
newspaper personnel regarding legal and legislative matters affecting
newspapers, files amicus briefs in court cases significant to Pennsylvania newspapers, and conducts member
education seminars.
Confirmed Speaker:
Brian Farkas, News Editor for West Virginia, Associated Press, Charleston. Farkas is active in efforts to
form an Open Government Coalition in West
Virginia.
Topic: "Open Records Laws:
Forum & Update". Learn about and compare Open Records Laws in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, and Michigan.
Our panel of experts will discuss the current status and use of the laws,
proposed changes, and what a model Open Records Law might look like.
Confirmed Speaker: Mark Briggs
Assistant Managing Editor for
Interactive News The News Tribune, Tacoma
Topic: "Journalism 2.0: How to
Survive and Thrive"
Briggs' presentation would be based
on his "Journalism 2.0", "a 128- page digital literacy guide for
the information age." Briggs introduces new media techniques for
pros who have been in the business for years or amateurs who want to do
community news. He discusses everything from writing scripts and blogs to RSS
feeds and editing video.
Confirmed Speaker: Robert Cox
President of the Media Bloggers
Association
"The Media Bloggers Association
is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to promoting, protecting and educating
its members; supporting the development of "blogging" or
"citizen journalism" as a distinct form of media; and helping to
extend the power of the press, with all the rights and responsibilities that
entails, to every citizen.