SPONSORED BY THE UMASS BOSTON CENTER ON MEDIA AND SOCIETY
AND THE McCormack Graduate School OF POLICY STUDIES

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To register please either RSVP Jamie Ennis, fill and fax in the registration form found in the the above downloadable conference agenda, or click here for Online registration.

Parking at a rate of $6 for the day will be reserved on on a first-come, first-served basis until 10:30 a.m. for conference participants, in the North Lot next to the Campus Center. Please follow signs to the North Lot, near the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.
Click here for directions to UMass Boston campus.

This conference is made possible by a generous grant from FleetBoston Financial.

1. Breakfast with George Stephanopoulos.
   Time: 8:30 a.m. - 10 a.m.
   Place: UMass Boston Campus Center ballroom, 3rd Floor
   Topic: “How the Media Influence Public Policy.”
   
   Welcoming remarks: Chancellor JoAnn Gora, Trustee Jim Mahoney of Bank of America, former Dean Edmund Beard of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, and Ellen Hume, Director of the Center on Media and Society.
   
   Speakers: George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC’s Sunday show, “This Week,”
   in conversation with veteran political columnist David Nyhan
   
   George Stephanopoulos, anchor of ABC’s Sunday morning program, This Week, and formerly White House communications director under President Bill Clinton, will talk about “How the Media Influence Public Policy” with David Nyhan, veteran reporter on politics for Massachusetts newspapers. Guests will join the dialogue about the normally invisible role of the press in policy-making in Washington.
   
   To attend, RSVP Jamie Ennis
    
   
2. Ethnic Journalism Initiative.
   Time: 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.
   Place: Campus Center ballroom, 3rd Floor
   Topic: “Ethnic and Community Journalism”
   
   Speakers: Sandy Close, creator of the New California Media project; followed by a panel including Angel Bermudez of the Boston Foundation, Callie Crossley, veteran television journalist; Bill Forrey, Managing Editor, Reporter Newspapers; Charlot Lucien, local Haitian radio host; Alberto Vasallo III of El Mundo, Betty Kit-Fong Yau, local Chinese radio entrepreneur.
   
   This brainstorming session will inaugurate the Center’s proposed project on local community and ethnic journalism. Sandy Close, who has for seven years built a successful ethnic media collaborative in California, will report on what they have done and Boston ethnic journalism leaders will offer their own views on what is needed, what is possible here. Attendees will be invited to join the discussion about the role of ethnic news media (Haitian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Cuban, etc.) in Boston and elsewhere in America in integrating (or protecting?) immigrant populations from the broader political culture, its rich potential in offering news that is overlooked by the other “mainstream” media,” and what the different media might gain through a joint initiative of story exchanges, conferences, job fairs and “ethnic Pulitzer prizes.”
   
   To attend, RSVP Jamie Ennis
    
   
3. “The Massachusetts Voter: Good News or Bad News?”
   Time: 12:00 p.m. - 2 p.m. Luncheon
   Place: Campus Center ballroom, 3rd Floor
   Purpose: The new John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies will be celebrated with a luncheon.
   Topic: “What is on the Mind of the Massachusetts Voter?”
   
   Speakers: McCormack’s Lou DiNatale will release a special Massachusetts poll, highlighting public attitudes toward media, gay marriage, and other hot political issues. Harvard Professor Thomas Patterson will describe his research on the connection between news consumption and voting. A UMass Boston panel moderated by former Dean Edmund Beard, including DiNatale, Carol Hardy-Fanta (Director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy) and Paul Watanabe (Director of the Institute for Asian American Studies) will discuss these findings with Patterson.
   
   To attend, RSVP Jamie Ennis
    
   
4. Panel Discussion: “Media, History and Identity” a discussion with Facing History and Ourselves
   Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
   Place: Campus Center ballroom, 3rd Floor
   Topic: "From 'Birth of a Nation' to 'The Passion': Issues of Media and Identity"
   Speaker: Adam Strom of Facing History and Ourselves, and Prof. Paul Bookbinder of UMass Boston will talk about how ethnic identity, depicted in such Hollywood films as “The Passion” and “Birth of a Nation,” can create challenging problems and opportunities for students and teachers. Facing History, which has for over 25 years been providing award-winning curriculum at high schools around the country, aims to help students learn from history how to make effective moral choices today.
   
   To attend, RSVP Jamie Ennis