Lemke Journalism Department Hosts Forum on ‘Future of the News Business’

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A panel of working “online” journalists will discuss “The Fog of New Media” during a three-day forum, Nov. 4-6, hosted by the Walter J. Lemke department of journalism in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas.

The panel members include Matthew Waite, the senior news technologist at the St. Petersburg Times and designer of PolitiFact, the first stand-alone Web site to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; Michelle Malashock, the Web content editor at The Morning News; Gordon Witkin, managing editor at the Center for Public Integrity; and Conan Gallaty, the online director for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The panel discussion will be held at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, in the Donald W. Reynolds Center Auditorium.

The panel is one of three featured events of “­When the Ink Runs Dry: A Forum on the Future of the News Business.” The forum is funded in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. All events are open to the public, and faculty, staff and students are encouraged to attend.

“A Glimpse of the Future” presents three videos produced by the Washington, D.C.-based Newseum. The videos are part of a 10-part television series, “The Future of News,” which is set to air in early 2010 and features “lively, cutting-edge conversations with well-known journalists and new media pioneers about the evolution of news reporting in an Internet age,” according to the Newseum Web site. The videos will be shown at 9:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, in Kimpel Hall Room 111.

“Advice for the Future,” a student-moderated question and answer session with Matthew Waite and Gordon Witkin, will take place at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 6, in Kimpel Hall Room 111. The session will be videotaped to air on UATV.