On April 30th, Shandelee Lake Inn was host to the 2010 Mike Levine Workshop on new media for the second year in a row, as well as being catered by chez vous.
The conference is a way for new journalists to learn and get a feel for the direction their field is taking.
From the differences between “saving print media” vs. “saving journalism” to the use and importance of using social networks as a key tool in the new media landscape to help brand yourself and remain a vital part of the grander media conversation in an ever changing and never stopping news cycle.
One of the prominent speakers at the event was Ass. Professor at Arizona State University and member of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism Leslie-Jean Thornton, Ph.D.
Prof. Thornton spoke of the importance of, specifically, Twitter and how It’s ability to provide snap citizen journalism will, and has already, become a key component in the new media landscape.
She also spoke of how an upstart company like Twitter began with a group of friends in 2007 and has now become one of the most-used websites on the net and sought after by investors for millions of dollars.
The overall tone of the event was that of blazing your own trail.
Guest speakers like Meg McGuire, Ellen Levine, Barbara Gref, Kristy Gray, Joan Garrett, Beth Brelje, Howard Frank, Gittel Evangelist, Doyle Murphy, Rachel Dickinson, Mary Ann Bragg, Cara Solomon, among others in the profession, echoed the sentiment that the news media is changing.
Not for the better or worse, but for new crops of journalists to figure out how to navigate it.
