AUSTIN, Texas – April 6, 2012 – More than 200 media executives, journalists and scholars from the U.S. and around the world will attend the 13th International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ), an annual global conference at the University of Texas at Austin's Blanton Museum of Art on April 20-21. Registration is open online, but seats are limited and likely to fill up. A full schedule is available.

The cost to attend the symposium is $60 for the general public and $30 for students and faculty. Sponsors include The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Scripps Howard Foundation, The Dallas Morning News and the Open Society Foundations.

ISOJ offers a unique blend of academic research along with insightful perspectives from online journalism industry leaders.

"Journalists, media executives and scholars come literally from around the globe to present or just to attend ISOJ," said Rosental Alves, professor in the School of Journalism at UT. "The symposium has created such a strong international reputation that it is not an exaggeration to say that, yes, for those two days – Austin will be a center of online journalism discussions at a global level."

The opening keynote speaker will be Richard Gingras, head of news products for Google. Gingras, a former television journalist and founder and CEO of Salon.com, has more than 30 years experience in the development of online services, software, and new media.

Other keynote speakers include Jim Moroney, publisher and chief executive officer of The Dallas Morning News; Raju Narisetti, the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal Digital Network and a former managing editor of The Washington Post; and Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet and the Professor of Innovation and Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise at UT's Cockrell School of Engineering.

The symposium has two main components: discussions with leaders in the journalism industry on various topics, and the presentation of top research articles submitted by esteemed journalism and new media academics from around the world.

This year's symposium received 71 academic papers submitted for consideration, with the top 22 papers selected for presentation. Speakers and researchers will be visiting Austin from around the world and arriving from such locales as Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, South Africa, Mexico, the Philippines, Argentina and Brazil.

In covering one of this year's pressing topics in media, Louis Gump, vice president for CNN Mobile, will facilitate discussion on how journalists are responding to the mobile revolution. Another of this year’s highly anticipated panels will focus on innovation and entrepreneurialism in news organizations, and how journalists can learn from tech startups.

Aron Pilhofer, editor of Interactive News for The New York Times, and Alastair Dant, lead interactive technologist at The Guardian News & Media in London, will discuss with others how data and data visualization is changing the way stories are told online.

The symposium will also examine the increasing impact of social media on journalism. Dan Gillmor, author of "Mediactive" and "We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People," and Laura Evans, vice president of research and the chief experience officer at The Washington Post, will discuss new trends in community journalism.

For more information, visit the ISOJ website.

One of the nation's foremost institutions for the study of advertising and public relations, communication sciences and disorders, communication studies, journalism and radio-TV-film, The University of Texas at Austin College of Communication is preparing students to thrive in an era of media convergence. Serving more than 4,500 undergraduate and graduate students, the College is nationally recognized for its faculty members, research and student media. For more information about the College of Communication, visit http://communication.utexas.edu.

CONTACT: Laura Byerley, 512-471-2182.