MIT

What happens when a video teacher and administrator at Boston English High School start to infuse media-literacy principles in the school day? Listen to this unedited audio of a session at the Oct. 27, 2007 media literacy conference at MIT: "Creating and Learning in a Media Saturated Culture." The panel, lead by Renee Hobbs, of Temple University, included (in first order of speaking): Rona Zickower, of Media Power Youth, Manchester, N.H.; Xavier Rozas, media teacher, Boston English High School; and Chris Toulet-Cote, assistant headmaster of English High.  Click here to launch an audio stream, or DOWNLOAD MP3 PODCAST.

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A new initiative to teach youth how to become "citizen journalists" has been launched at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and researchers are asking teachers to share curriculum and project ideas at a Wed., Sept. 26 focus-group dinner in Cambridge starting at 6 p.m. Individuals involved in video, journalism or new-media projects involving youth are welcomed.

Brad Seawell of the MIT Communications Forum writes to note that a free public forum on Thurs., Sept. 20 launches a new center studying the relationship between emerging media and civic engagement. A key area of inquiry is how virtual worlds such as SecondLife affect civic engagement in the real world. The "MIT Center for Future Civic Media," is funded with a $5-million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The technology of the web is making it possible for editors to measure with precision how many people are reading which stories online. Some of the results suggest a wide disparity between web readership and what editors choose to put on front pages, but not such much difference when print readers recommend print headlines. It raises starkly an age-old question for journalists: Should a news organization lead or follow public opinion?

On February 24th, MIT Comparative Media Studies will host a conference in collaboration with Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. The one-day event will be held at MIT, and is entitled “Beyond Broadcast: From Participatory Culture to Participatory Democracy.” It will bring together industry experts, academic leaders, and political activists for panel discussions and focused working groups. For complete details and schedule, please visit:
http://www.beyondbroadcast.net/blog