In Wichita: ‘The Future of News in Our Digital Age’

Soon in Wichita: A panel discussion with audience interaction on the topic “The Future of News in Our Digital Age.”

New Symposium is a group of Wichitans who hold regular meetings of public interest. New Symposium describes its goal is to “engage in the kind of thoughtful and respectful dialogue that is so seldom experienced in our modern world of political propaganda and social media sound-bites … but which still characterizes men and women of good will when they take the time to step back and logically think things through together.” It also uses the motto “New Symposium: Rescuing Discourse from the Political Parties.”

New Symposium’s next event is on January 31, and I will be a symposiast. This event is a public forum on the topic “The Future of News in Our Digital Age.” It is a panel discussion with audience interaction.

This event will be held on Tuesday, January 31, 2017 from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. The location is Social Networking Technologies, Inc., located in the High Touch Building at 110 S. Main in downtown Wichita, Kansas. (Link to Google map.)

There is no cost to attend this event.

Panelists are

• W. Davis (Buzz) Merritt, Former Senior Vice President and Senior Editor of The Wichita Eagle; Adjunct professor of journalism at University of Kansas
• Dave Trabert, President of Kansas Policy Institute and Board Member of The Sentinel, a new online news service
• Mike Marlett, Former owner of local, weekly newspaper F-5; current manager of website content at Wichita State University
• Mark McCormick, Former professional journalist and current Executive Director of The Kansas African American Museum
• Bob Weeks, Publisher of the Voice for Liberty at wichitaliberty.org

For updates and dialogue on the symposium, see
newsymposium.blogspot.com. Much more information may be found there. In particular, questions for consideration at this event include:

• What are the motives and incentives that shape the “news” produced by the different forms of media (some more centralized, traditional, or corporate than others)? What should they be?
• Given the internet’s enormous potential for misinformation, how can one find “just the facts”? When everyman’s a journalist, what happens to accountability for telling the truth?
• Has the centralized, legacy media been caught up in the hyper-polarization of American politics? If so, is there a remedy? Can we have tough, independent investigative journalism that does not start with presupposition and prejudice?
• What is the future of explanatory journalism that emphasizes nuance and context in a digital age in which speed and headlines are prized? How could Twitter and Snapchat ever properly inform?
• Are digital media/communications making us all attention-deficit? Are we too easily “informed”?