TO REGISTER:                  http://www.mediagiraffe.org/register/

HIGHTLIGHTS:                 http://www.mediagiraffe.org/highlights/

    LAST MINUTE PROGRAM CHANGES:                http://www.mediagiraffe.org/wiki/index.php/Program_changes

Preliminary program as of June 20, 2006 / subject to change

The speakers, conveners, and session topics are tentative and are subject to change without notice. Check this page (http://www.mediagiraffe.org/wiki/index.php/Program_changes) for updates.

TRACK ONE – Roundtable Summit

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

4 p.m.-6:30 p.m.	Check-in for participants in “Future of Journalism Roundtable Summit” (Campus Center Hotel, 10th  floor)
5:00 p.m. –6:00 p.m. Campus Center Reading Room	Reading and book signing by Helen Thomas, Hearst Newspapers White House columnist,  author of the forthcoming, “Watchdogs of Democracy? The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public. Free and open to the public.
5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.	Informal reception for Summit participants, Campus Center
6:30 p.m.9:45 p.m.   7:45 p.m.   CC Auditorium   8:00p.m. CC Auditorium /   CC   8:30 p.m. –9:45 p.m. CC Auditorium	Dinner, speakers,  and discussion / Campus Center  , CC Auditorium.    INTRODUCTIONS -- Janet Rifkin, dean, UMass College of Social and Behavioral Sciences; Karen List, journalism director, UMass;  Norman Sims, journalism professor; Bill Densmore MGP director.     TALK – Helen Thomas, Hearst newspapers columnist  --       DISCUSSION: “How will journalism stay relevant? To whom? In what forms?” CONVENERS:  Vin Crosbie, Corante Media Hub, Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine and CUNY.  DISCUSSANTS: Marty Baron, editor, The Boston Globe; Teresa Hanafin, editor, Boston.com; Larry McDermott, publisher The Republican, Springfield, Mass; Ellen Hume, UMass-Boston; Peter Bhatia, Portland Oregonian;  Helen Thomas, White House columnist, Hearst Newspapers, Jay Rosen, New York University/PressThink.com Search engines show blog reports get more hits on a given topic than a New York Times story. Is the traditional practice of journalism becoming a niche? Or moving toward irrelevance? Or is journalism simply in need of redefinition and retooling? Once a profession, or a craft, is journalism now a toolset all citizens need to know? How do they learn? A town meeting discussion.

Thursday, June 29, 2006 – One-day Future of Journalism Roundtable Summit

7:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m.	Continental breakfast for “Future of Journalism Roundtable Summit” participants.
7:30 a.m.-8:30 a.m.	Check-in for participants in  TRACK ONE: “Future of Journalism Roundtable Summit” (location: Campus Center Concourse Lower Level at escalators.)
8:00 a.m.-8:15 a.m.	Two-minute introductions -- Rob Williams/Colin Rhinesmith (education), Norman Sims / Bill Densmore (journalism/citizen journalism), Aldon Hynes/ Ellen Hume (politics), and Steve Garfield/Tish Grier (multimedia technology)
8:15 a.m.-9 :15 a.m. CC163C	OPENING TALK: “Innovate, Die Or Be Sold: A Prescription for the News Company of the Future,” by Stephen Gray, executive director, Newspaper Next initiative of the American Press Institute.
9:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m. CC101	Session ONE:  “Finding a New Definition Of Journalism”  CONVENERS:  Tom Rosenstiel, Project on Excellence in Journalism; Jeff Jarvis,  BuzzMachine.com; DISCUSSANTS: Jon Donley, editor, NOLA.com; Helen Thomas, Hearst Newspapers; Amy Eisman, American University; Josh Wilson, NewsDesk.org;  Chris Peck,  Memphis Commercial Appeal; Chris Daly, Boston University., Robin “Roblimo” Miller, SlashDot.com. How do you define journalism when every blogger can have a worldwide audience? Are today’s journalists like yesterday’s pamphleteers? A discussion among  a journalism-industry think-tank expert, a veteran daily editor, two  media educators, a White House columnist,   two  web-journalism veterans – and summit participants.
10:45 a.m.-11:00  a.m.	Media Café break  --  VIDEO: “Public Insight Journalism” – CC Reading Room
10:45 a.m.-11:15 a.m. CC101	SPECIAL: How Katrina changed the news ecology A DISCUSSION: with Jon Donley, editor, NOLA. Com and Cooper Monroe, BeenThereClearingHouse.com.  The editor of New Orlean’s premier news website and the Pittsburgh-based partner in a volunteer Katrina relief blog share perspectives on how the Internet has changed coverage of major news events.
11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. CC163C	Session TWO: “Quality: How Do You Measure It?” CONVENER: Fabrice Florin, Newstrust.net. DISCUSSANTS:  John McManus, Grade the News; Jeffrey Fox, ConsumerPower.org;  Peter Phillips, Project Censored; Philip Meyer, Univ. of North Carolina. If finding news on the web is getting easier, the proliferation of news sites is presenting a new challenge – how to judge quality.  NewsTrust is a new effort to address the problem.  Executive director Fabrice Florin will describe and demonstrate the project, then respond to constructive criticism from four experts at judging news quality.
12:15 p.m.-12:30 p.m.	Room/phone/Media Café break
12:30 p.m.-1:45 p.m. CC CC Auditorium	Lunch, Campus Center   (or ballroom) Lunch Forum: “When the Press Becomes a Pipe, Who Controls?” Co-speakers: Mark Cooper, Consumer Federation of America;  Casey Lide, Baller Herbst Law Group;  Steve Anderson, COA News; Cable and phone giants want to create tiers of service for delivering content on the Internet, upsetting the concept of “network neutrality.” Legal, technical and First Amendment experts will invite summit collaborators to help define the lines between commercial rights and free-speech obligations, and how municipal ownership of “pipes” could help.
1:45 p.m.-2:00 p.m.	Media Café break
2 p.m.-3:45 p.m. CC101	Session THREE:  “Can Free Media Sustain Democracy?” CONVENERS:  Peter Krasilovsky, Krasilovsky Consulting; Charles Lewis, Center for Public Integrity; David Beers, The Tyee;  John Byrne, RawStory.com; Staci Kramer, PaidContent.org;  Barry Parr, Coastsider.com. While print-newspaper circulation slowly declines, online newspapers are experiencing a Renaissance, reaching new peaks in readership nearly every month. How long will it take before that readership translates to revenue large enough to sustain great, watchdog journalism?  Will web advertising alone support today’s newsrooms? Is that an  issue for democracy? And what sort of platform for public debate will emerge? What other funding options are possible? How do you sell sponsorships and advertising,how much do you charge,  and what do you promise in return? What makes a community site truly sustainable, and what kinds of "compromises" must be made to get there?
3:45 p.m.-4 p.m.	Media Café break
4 p.m.-5:15 p.m. CC Reading Room	Session FOUR:  “Immigrant and Ethnic Markets: Once Below the Radar; Now a Coveted Revenue Source.   Who Should Own the Market?” CONVENERS: Ellen Hume, UMass Boston; Jerry Villacres, Ethnic  Media Project of Boston; Sandy Close, New California Media . Small newspapers, radio and TV for immigrants were overlooked by mainstream media. Now these niche audiences are coveted by MSM.  How is the web changing the news experience for immigrants and ethnic populations?  What impact does the “digital divide” have?
5:15 p.m.-6:30 p.m. CC101	Media –  “Can old media be part of the new news ecology?  SPEAKER: Michael Skoler,  Center for Innovation in Journalism; DISCUSSANTS: Barry Parr, CoastSider.com; Jiah Kim, FreeSpeechTV;  Michael Tippett, NowPublic.com (tentative);  David Platt, Island Institute, Maine, Kevin Howley, DePauw University;  Scott Brodeur, MassLive; Paul Thomas, ePluribusMedia.  A  briefing on the new Center for Innovation in Journalism, with feedback and reaction from a mix of discussants.
5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Herter Hall Videoconferencing Center	SPECIAL EVENT – (tentative) “The Philadelphia Experiments” For the first time in decades, major U.S. metropolitan newspapers are be sold by a chain to local owners .  At the same time, a working group of citizens in the city where American independence sprang are considering  what the next news organization will look like.   An effort to set up a live videoconference between Amherst and Philadelphia is planned.
6:30 p.m.-7:15 p.m.	Reception for all conference attendees (including Friday sessions)
7:15 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Dinner 8:15 p.m. – Discussion starts  (buffet desserts, coffee and tea). 9;45 p.m. – Discussion ends. CC Auditorium; CC	Dinner-and-discussion: “Can Ownership Make a Difference?” CONVENERS: Vin Crosbie, Corante  Media Hub., Jay Rosen, New York University. DISCUSSSANTS: Rick Edmonds, The Poynter Institute; Richard Anderson, VillageSoup.com; Paul Bass, New Haven Independent; Dave Johnson, Atwater [Wis.] Sunfish Gazette (tentative);  Joseph McQuaid, New Hampshire Union Leader; Dave Carlson, Univ. of Florida/SPJ;  Christopher Mackin, Ownership Associates. What do reformers really mean by the term “corporate  media”? Do forms of ownership make a difference? A dessert-and-discussion town meeting session with corporate governance, family ownership and non-profit experts unpacking assumptions about this  issue.

Friday, June 30, 2006

Special Event – TRACK ONE OPTIONAL DAY 2

9:30 a.m.-5:45 p.m. CC Room 101

“Journalism That Matters: Looking Beyond the Newsroom Walls” – CONVENERS: Stephen Silha, news consultant; Chris Peck, daily editor, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn. A special seminar for working journalists and other stakeholders. Roll up your sleeves and create experiments in journalism and community storytelling, explore new economic models, journalism as a conversation, teaching and learning, as well as changing leadership in the newsroom and the community.

Friday, June 30, 2006
Tracks TWO – FIVE

7:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m.	Conference check-in, Campus Center Concourse level
7:00 a.m.-8 a.m.	Continental breakfast for summit participants  (Campus Center lower concourse)
8 a.m.- 9:15 a.m. GENERAL SESSION CC Reading Room	Report from Thursday’s summit:   “Setting the scene: What’s the future of the web and news?” CONVENERS:  Dale Peskin, The Media Center at API; Lee Rainie, the Pew Project on Internet & Society; Tom Rosenstiel, Project on Excellence in Journalism. A news-industry  futurist, , an Internet demographics researcher and a key observer and facilitator of online multimedia news trends forecast the next year and the next decades for the Fourth Estate. How should media executives, citizen journalists, political strategists / public officials, educators and technologist prepare and collaborate?
9:15 a.m.-9:30 a.m.	Media Café break
9:30 a.m.-10:15 a.m. TRACK TWO CC163-C	Media – “Experiment in Collaboration: Can MSM and citizens work together?” PRESENTER: Lew Friedland,  Univ. of Wisconsin and Madison Commons.  A quick summary of the issues  involved in a unique  effort by the Madison, Wis., daily newspapers to join and assist a local citizen-media news collaborative, the Madison Commons.
12:15 p.m.-12:30 p.m.	Media Café break
12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m. CC  CC Auditorium	Buffet lunch (CC Auditorium or Campus Center Ballroom)  “Is Media Performance Democracy’s Critical Issue?” SPEAKER: Tom Stites, Center for Public Integrity;  INTRODUCED BY: Chris Peck, Memphis Commercial Appeal. Thirty years ago, if your policy message was on the three networks, The New York Times or the Washington Post, it spread quickly across America. We are now in an era of micr0-media – blogs, email, dozens of networks and cable channels, multimedia chaos and creativity.  Political strategists who disagree on issues often agree that media structure and performance is now their No. 2 issue.  Has the state of our media become the most important threat to participatory democracy? Why?
2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. TRACK FIVE CC Reading Room	Technology – “News a la Carte – Fracturing The Public Sphere?” CONVENERS: Holmes Wilson, Participatory Culture Foundation; Thomas Marban, PopUrls.com; Jonathan Dube, CBC.CA (pending). Consumers can now paste together their version of a news event from multiple sources in seconds. What’s the impact of news a la carte on understanding and what new technologies feed this trend? How does it fracture the public sphere – or enrich it?
3:30 p.m.-4:15 p.m.	Media Café and free ice cream social, courtesy of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Inc.
5:30 p.m.-5:45 p.m.	Media Café  -- networking / discussion
5:45 p.m.-6:30 p.m.	Campus Center Reading Room – reception and hor d’oeuvres for all attendees. (Spill out into CC Concourse)
6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. DINNER   7::30 p.m.-8:15 p.m. SPEECH       8:15 p.m.-9:30 p.m. DISCUSSION	Dinner and discussion, CC Auditorium,  Campus Center      SPEAKER: Dr. Rob Williams, president, Action Coalition for Media Education; professor, Champlain College, Burlington, Vermont:  “Why Doesn’t Johnny Care? How Media Can Bring Young Adults Back Into The Public Sphere?”   Young adults have abandoned the news as presented in traditional forms. Newspaper and TV users are aging. But they are heavy media consumers.  What will put public affairs back into their diet? And why does it matter?  DISCUSSANTS: Andrea Frantz, Wilkes University; Melissa Krodman, Project Think Different; Mark Lopez, CIRCLE .
9:30 p.m.-11:00 p.m. Campus Center    CC Auditorium	Media Café Extra: “War Stories – Avoiding Other’s Mistakes” An informal session for all participants able to share “war stories” from the trenches of citizen journalism. What has been your worst experience? Share your nightmares and tales of woe over beer, wine or whatever.

Saturday, July 1, 2006 

7:30  a.m.-8:30 a.m.	Continental breakfast for summit participants ( Campus Center Lower Level Concourse)
8:30 a.m.-9:45 a.m. TRACK FIVE CC Reading Room	Technology:  “Merging Forms: Is the Medium Still the Message?” CONVENERS: Steve Garfield, Rocketboom.com; Paul Grabowicz, University of California Berkeley;   Robb Montgomery,  VisualEditors.com Blogging… reporters who pack a camera, MP3 recorder and a notepad … 24/7 deadlines …is journalism using technology or the other way around? As the information fire hose reaches full pressure, is wisdom increasing too.
10:00 a.m.-11:15 a.m. (same rooms as earlier sessions)	Media Café collaboration and Track meet-ups for “next step” ideas:   Topic ideas:   POLITICS:  Pitching the big tent TECHNOLOGY:  Making adoption easy CITIZEN MEDIA:  Inviting participation EDUCATION:  Making media cool
11:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m. CLOSING SESSION AND BOX LUNCHES  CC Room 101	“What Did We Learn/What’s Next” -- Reports from track managers or designees “Speak to the Group” – Moderated  open microphone session   Closing Talk: “Keeping Participatory Democracy Alive: Talking Across The Divides Of Media, Politics, Education And Technology.” CONVENERS: Norman Sims, UMass Amherst and  principal investigator, Media Giraffe Project;  Bill Densmore, director/editor.
12:45 p.m.	Conference Ends
1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Independent meet-ups and outdoor bootcamps	POST-CONFERENCE MEET-UPS:   Independent groups with membership at the conference hold planning or strategy sessions in rooms provided at no additional charge by the Media Giraffe Project and UMass Amherst.   MUSEUMS 10 – at WikiPedia  /   ACTIVITIES/TRIPS:  (LINK: Amherst area)   INDIVIDUAL LINKS:   Hiking: Mount Toby, the Norwottuck Trail Rafting on the Deerfield River (Charlemont, Mass.) Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book  Art  (Amherst, Mass.) Historic Deerfield or Yankee Candle (South Deerfield, Mass.) Amherst College Mead Art Museum (Amherst) Amherst College Museum of Natural History Smith College Museum of Art (Northampton) National Yiddish Book Center (South Amherst) Emily Dickens House Museum (Amherst) Official NBA Basketball Hall of Fame (Springfield, Mass.) Mass. Museum of Contemporary Art (North Adams, Mass.)
Saturday evening	Events in the Five College Area: Tanglewood (BSO-Lenox, Mass. –Garrison Keillor / Prairie Home Companion Live, 5:45 p.m., Sat., July 1)