Knight 25th Anniversary Symposium

Note: Registration is now closed for both the symposium and gala dinner.

Schedule

A schedule of events can be found here.

About the Symposium

A quarter century ago, MIT launched a pioneering effort to improve the public’s understanding of science. The Institute, founded to solve real-world problems, understood that the most urgent crises lay at the intersection of science, technology and society. And MIT recognized the essential role played by the news media in informing public discourse about those problems.

25 Years at MIT

438 Journalism Careers Advanced

Millons Understand Science Better

Since those early days when Victor McElheny created the program as the Vannevar Bush Fellowships in the Public Understanding of Technology and Science, 254 reporters, editors, producers, photographers, illustrators and even one cartoonist have spent an academic year at MIT. Another 184 have come to campus for a "boot camp" on a specific topic. Most have told us their time at MIT aided greatly in their ability to serve readers, viewers and listeners.

But all is not well. Lately, journalism has endured layoffs and buy-outs, the demise of science sections, and declining audiences for traditional media. Yet there is reason for optimism. New media (some no longer so new) and still newer media are creating opportunities. New models of journalism are evolving almost as fast as new technologies. And large numbers of people with no journalism background are taking up the practice, bringing new energy and challenges to old traditions.

We invite you to join our 25th anniversary symposium to look at
the changing state of our field and, more importantly, to peer into the future.

Speakers Will Include

		Alan Boyle, science editor of MSNBC.com, who focuses on developing educational sidebar material to accompany major news stories. He is a winner of the AAAS Science Journalism Award, and the NASW Science-in-Society Award.

		Henry Copeland, founder of Blogads.com, which aims to put advertising on blogs

		Alfred Hermida, founding member and technology editor of BBCNews.com, now a professor at the University of British Columbia’s journalism school. His research examines multiplatform journalism, blogging, podcasting and user-generated content.

		David Jackson, Director Marketing and Planning at E Ink Corporation, the leader in electronic paper display technology. David specializes in bringing new products to marketing and developing ecosystems around new enabling technologies.

		Henry Jenkins, director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program. Jenkins lectures widely about media consumption and media convergence. He sees lessons for journalists in popular media such as television, movies and electronic games.

		Dianne Lynch, incoming dean of the Graduate School of Journalism, UC-Berkeley. While dean at Ithaca College, she created the Center for Independent Media to explore new journalistic forms. Lynch was founding executive director of the national Online News Association and co-producer of digital training modules for online newsrooms.

		Mindy McAdams teaches journalism at the University of Florida and is the author of Flash Journalism: How to Create Multimedia News Packages. She was the first content developer at Digital Ink, The Washington Post's first online newspaper. Later she was the "web strategist" for the American Press Institute. She writes a blog called "teaching online journalism."

		Tom Rosenstiel, director, Project for Excellence in Journalism, vice chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. A journalist for some 20 years, he now writes frequently on maintaining high journalistic standards in an era of change.

		Cristine Russell, president, Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, currently at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. For many years she was a medical writer at The Washington Post.

		Clive Thompson, contributing writer on science, technology and culture for The New York Times Magazine, also writes for Wired, Discover and others. A former Knight Fellow (02-03), Thompson will explain how “crowdsourcing” has made him a better journalist.

Bloggers Panel

moderated by Phil Hilts, Knight Fellowships director designate

	Eric Berger: The SciGuy, his blog within the Houston Chronicle site		Carl Zimmer: Freelance science journalist, author and essayist, writer for The Loom
	Katherine Sharpe: Seed magazine’s manager of ScienceBlogs		Gary Robbins: ScienceDude Covering mostly local issues for the Orange County Register

Gala Dinner

February 19, 2008 at 6:30pm

Note: Registration for the Gala Dinner has closed.

Celebrate 25 years of the Knight and Bush Fellowships,
and meet the new Fellowships director.

Guest speaker Julia Sweeney, best known from Saturday Night Live, will perform part of her one-woman show, “Letting Go of God,” about her poignant personal journey from religious devotion to a full embrace of logic and science.