Media Scholar Robert Jensen to give lecture and workshop in Rochester 1/21-1/22/05

Media scholar and activist Robert Jensen will be in Rochester 1/21-1/22/05 to give a lecture on media and the crisis of democracy and a workshop for activists on getting the media to pay attention to their issues. <!--break--> <img class="dada-image-center" src="http://rochester.indymedia.org/sites/default/files/migrate_dada/Jensen2.jpg"><br> <span style="font-family: arial;">Media scholar Robert Jensen, associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas, Austin, will give a lecture on media and the crisis of democracy the evening of Jan. 21, and a workshop for activists on getting “A Word In Edgewise: Working with Mainstream Media” during the daytime 1/22 (details to be finalized soon):</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /> <div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Working with Mainstream Media: a workshop with UT Professor Robert Jensen </span><br /> </div> <span style="font-family: arial;">&nbsp;</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial;">Is your group feeling used, abused, or ignored by the news media? Do you have trouble getting journalists to pay attention to issues and events you think are important? This media-training workshop will cover the basics of working with journalists and the news media. We'll go over the basics of news releases, news conferences, and event planning; strategies to use when you are interviewed; and effective letter and op/ed writing. Drawing on his experience as a working journalist, academic, and activist/critic, Robert Jensen will suggest ways to better understand journalists so that activists can more effectively get their messages out through mainstream commercial news media.<br /> </div> <br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">The events are being sponsored by </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://metrojustice.org">Metro Justice</a><span style="font-family: arial;">. The lecture will be free and open to the public, with donations requested. There will be a sliding scale fee for the media workshop of $10-$20; however, scholarships are available and no one will be turned away for lack of ability to pay. </span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">Jensen is the author of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (City Lights, 2004); </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (Peter Lang, 2002); co-author with Gail Dines and Ann Russo of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (Routledge, 1998); and co-editor with David S. Allen of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Freeing the First Amendment: Critical Perspectives on Freedom of Expression</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (New York University Press, 1995).</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">&nbsp;</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">Jensen joined the University of Texas at Austin faculty in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. on media law and ethics in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in media law, ethics, and politics. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a professional journalist for a decade.</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">&nbsp;</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">In his research, Jensen draws on a variety of critical theories. Much of his work has focused on pornography and the radical feminist critique of sexuality. In more recent work, he has addressed questions of race through a critique of white privilege and institutionalized racism.</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">In addition to teaching and research, Jensen writes for popular media, both alternative and mainstream. His opinion and analytic pieces on such subjects as foreign policy, politics, and race have appeared in papers around the country. He also is involved in a number of activist groups working against U.S. military and economic domination of the rest of the world. </span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">I personally came into contact with Jensen when I was editor of the </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Journal of Communication Inquiry</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> at the University of Iowa. He submitted a paper that I eventually published in the journal in 1987. Recently I had the pleasure of running into him again at the Midwest Social Forum in Wisconsin last June. He is an excellent speaker and has some terrific strategies for helping various organizations to get their voices heard.</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">I am sure Rochester area grassroots organizations will benefit greatly from Jensen's lecture and the workshop. If you are interested in the workshop, be sure to let us know soon, as space will be limited.<br /> <br /> Please feel free to contact </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="mailto:gnesmith@frontiernet.net">me</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> or </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://metrojustice.org/contact_us.htm">Metro Justice</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> for further details. </span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">************************************</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">Georgia NeSmith, Ph.D.</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">http://homepage.mac.com/georgia.nesmith</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">http://georgia_nesmith.tripod.com</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <span style="font-family: arial;">************************************</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /> <br style="font-family: arial;" />

<p>Media scholar and activist Robert Jensen will be in Rochester 1/21-1/22/05 to give a lecture on media and the crisis of democracy and a workshop for activists on getting the media to pay attention to their issues.</p> <!--break--><p><img class="dada-image-center" src="http://rochester.indymedia.org/sites/default/files/migrate_dada/Jensen2.jpg" /><br /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">Media scholar Robert Jensen,<br /> associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas, Austin,<br /> will give a lecture on media and the crisis of democracy the evening of<br /> Jan. 21, and a workshop for activists on getting “A Word In<br /> Edgewise: Working with Mainstream Media” during the daytime 1/22<br /> (details to be finalized soon):</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Working with Mainstream Media: a workshop<br /> with UT Professor Robert Jensen </span> </div> <p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial;" /></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial;">Is your group<br /> feeling used, abused, or ignored by the news media? Do you have trouble<br /> getting journalists to pay attention to issues and events you think are<br /> important? This media-training workshop will cover the basics of<br /> working with journalists and the news media. We'll go over the basics<br /> of news releases, news conferences, and event planning; strategies to<br /> use when you are interviewed; and effective letter and op/ed writing.<br /> Drawing on his experience as a working journalist, academic, and<br /> activist/critic, Robert Jensen will suggest ways to better understand<br /> journalists so that activists can more effectively get their messages<br /> out through mainstream commercial news media. </div> <p><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">The events are being sponsored by </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://metrojustice.org">Metro<br /> Justice</a><span style="font-family: arial;">. The lecture will be free<br /> and open to the public, with donations requested. There will be a<br /> sliding scale fee for the media workshop of $10-$20; however,<br /> scholarships are available and no one will be turned away for lack of<br /> ability to pay. </span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">Jensen is the author of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Citizens of the<br /> Empire: The Struggle to Claim<br /> Our Humanity</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (City Lights,<br /> 2004); </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Writing<br /> Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas<br /> from the Margins to the Mainstream</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (Peter Lang, 2002); co-author with<br /> Gail Dines and Ann Russo of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Pornography: The<br /> Production and Consumption<br /> of Inequality</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (Routledge,<br /> 1998); and co-editor with David S. Allen of<br /> </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Freeing<br /> the First Amendment: Critical Perspectives on Freedom of<br /> Expression</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> (New York<br /> University Press, 1995).</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">Jensen joined the University of Texas<br /> at Austin faculty in 1992<br /> after completing his Ph.D. on media law and ethics in the School of<br /> Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. He<br /> teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in media law, ethics, and<br /> politics. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a professional<br /> journalist for a decade.</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">In his research, Jensen draws on a<br /> variety of critical theories. Much<br /> of his work has focused on pornography and the radical feminist<br /> critique of sexuality. In more recent work, he has addressed questions<br /> of race through a critique of white privilege and institutionalized<br /> racism.</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">In addition to teaching and research,<br /> Jensen writes for popular media,<br /> both alternative and mainstream. His opinion and analytic pieces on<br /> such subjects as foreign policy, politics, and race have appeared in<br /> papers around the country. He also is involved in a number of activist<br /> groups working against U.S. military and economic domination of the<br /> rest of the world. </span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">I personally came into contact with<br /> Jensen when I was editor of the </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family: arial;">Journal of<br /> Communication Inquiry</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> at the<br /> University of Iowa. He submitted a paper that I eventually published in<br /> the journal in 1987. Recently I had the pleasure of running into him<br /> again at the Midwest Social Forum in Wisconsin last June. He is<br /> an excellent speaker and has some terrific strategies for helping<br /> various organizations to get their voices heard.</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">I am sure Rochester area grassroots<br /> organizations will benefit greatly from Jensen's lecture and the<br /> workshop. If you are interested in the workshop, be sure to let us know<br /> soon, as space will be limited.</span></p> <p>Please feel free to contact <a style="font-family: arial;" href="mailto:gnesmith@frontiernet.net">me</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> or </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://metrojustice.org/contact_us.htm">Metro Justice</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> for further details. </span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">************************************</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">Georgia NeSmith, Ph.D.</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://homepage.mac.com/georgia.nesmith">http://homepage.mac.com/georgia.nesmith</a></span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://georgia_nesmith.tripod.com">http://georgia_nesmith.tripod.com</a></span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;">************************************</span><br style="font-family: arial;" /><br /> <br style="font-family: arial;" /></p>