Is print dead? Who's a journalist? Is Google a newsroom? Why should I care?

(Get it? Get the picture? Cool, huh?...Illustrated by Jennifer Daniel and Erin Sparling. Check it out at A Brief Message : An Inconvenient Truth.)

It's Journalism Week in the Park School, and that means it's time for you to consider -- just for a moment (OK, a week) -- the answer to such questions.

They matter.

Take a look around at what's happening in your world.

The war in Iraq rages on, surge or no surge.

The economy is struggling (to be polite about it).

The cost of living -- from gas prices to tuition to shopping at Wegmann's -- is making it difficult for folks who work hard for a living to make ends meet.

And the news industry is dissolving before our eyes.

Seems like it's worth a week of our attention to talk about the role of a free press in a democracy, the impact of technology on the sharing of news and information, and the future of the Fourth Estate -- journalism -- in our digital age.

The campus chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, under the leadership of Erica Hendry, has put together a program of events and presentations that will address some of these questions....not to mention bring to campus some really outstanding alumni now working in major American newsrooms. (And yes, I'm included on the roster: I'll be talking about the future of American journalism on Wednesday at noon. Bring your lunch!)


Here's the schedule:

Monday, Oct 6 (TONIGHT)
7:30 p.m. Park 220
"International Journalism: Reporting Across Borders"
A presentation by Dr. Matt Mogekwu, Chair of the Journalism
Department, and Vadim Isakov, Scholar-In-Residence from Uzbekistan


Tuesday, Oct. 7
12:15 p.m. Park 220
Brown bag lunch: "From Classroom to Career: Thoughts on Journalism Education
With Jeffrey Selingo '95, Editor of The Chronicle of Higher
Education. Bring your own lunch — light refreshments
will be served.
(SPJ Members only)

7:30 p.m. Park 220
Building Online Communities: Making Journalism a Two-Way Conversation
With Vanessa Schneider '07, content moderator r at the New York
Times, and Wes Siler, an editor at Jalopnik.com

Wednesday, Oct. 8
Noon to 1 p.m. Park 220
Future of American Journalism
With Dianne Lynch, Dean of the Roy H. Park School of Communications

Thursday, Oct. 9
12:15 p.m. Park 220
Brown Bag lunch: "Journalism across multiple platforms"
With Jill Agostino '86, night news editor at the New York Times online. Bring your own lunch — light refreshments will be served
SPJ Members only

7:30 p.m. Park 220
Hands-on Photojournalism workshop
with Simon Wheeler, photo editor of the Ithaca Journal

Friday, Oct. 10
Noon to 3 p.m., location TBD
Journalism Barbecue
Tickets required. Tickets will be distributed at each of the week's events.
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