Society of Environmental Journalist Opening Plenary Session: Is Journalism - Environmental or Otherwise - a Dying Idea?

9:45 - 11:15 a.m., Friday, Oct. 5, 2005

EVENT: Commentators take secret payments to plug administration programs. Government agencies produce fake news reports. Basic information gets labeled "secret" and much of the public applauds. At the same time, readers flee newspapers and viewers shun network news, prompting newsrooms to slash budgets and staffs, as well as space and time for news. Meanwhile, as momentous environmental decisions seem to hardly make a ripple in the public consciousness, bloggers are able to bring down the mightiest media icons for sins real or imagined. How can journalism survive in such toxic times? Join us for a spirited debate about the future of what we do.

This event is free and open to the public.

Moderator: Judy Muller, correspondent, ABC News, and assistant professor of journalism, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California

Speakers:

• Merrill Brown, founder and principal, MMB Media LLC, and national editorial director, News for the 21st Century, Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education

• Bebe Crouse, national desk supervising editor, National Public Radio

• Nick Gillespie, editor-in-chief, Reason Magazine

• Jay Harris, Wallis Annenberg Chair in Journalism and Communication, and director, The Center for the Study of Journalism and Democracy, University of Southern California

• Andrew Revkin, environment reporter, The New York Times

• Rick Rodriguez, executive editor, The Sacramento Bee, and President, American Society of Newspaper Editors

• Mark Schleifstein, environmental reporter, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune

WHEN: 9:45 - 11:15 a.m., Friday, Sept. 30. 2005

WHERE: LBJ Auditorium, of Sid Richardson Hall, 2315 Red River St. (Maps of the University of Texas at Austin can be obtained at www.utexas.edu/maps/main).

BACKGROUND: The Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) is the world's oldest and largest membership organization of individual working journalists who cover environment-related issues. SEJ's membership of more than 1,450 includes reporters, producers and editors in print, broadcast and online news media in the United States, Mexico, Canada and 31 other countries.

The SEJ is hosting its 15th annual conference at The University of Texas at Austin. For more information about the SEJ, visit www.sej.org.