Women, Action, and the Media conference

The Women, Action, & the Media conference was a lot of fun, really informative and inspirational. For whatever reason, I completely forgot to bring my laptop, so here are my written notes:
3/28/08: I met Helen Thomas! THE Helen Thomas! She is so awesome – spunky and courageous. She signed my book and I got to shake her hand and get my picture taken with her. Being the professional journalist that I am, I forgot my camera. Luckily, another WAMmer agreed to take it with her camera and e-mail it to me after the conference.
Her speech was great. She talked about the strides we’ve made as women since the ’40s (when she started out) and how now, journalism is a women’s profession, as so many more women are in journalism schools. True that. She reflected briefly on each of the presidents she’s covered as the White House correspondent: JFK – her favorite; Nixon – always took the wrong road. She tore into Bush, but said her harshest criticism was reserved for Congress and the press. She was adamant about her opposition to the war. She was funny and inspiring, sometimes both at once. She got two standing ovations.
Afterwards, she was like a rock star, mobbed by adoring fans. I waited over an hour to get her to sign my book, during which time I met Jen Sorensen, creator of the “Slowpoke” comic, who is one of my favorite cartoonists, up there with Matt Groening and Tom Tomorrow, creator of “This Modern World.”
Cool vibes all around. Lots of women – young, old, straight, gay, white, black, Lebanese, whatever. I’m already having a great time and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
3/29/08: I wish I would have brought my laptop – so much new media are represented here.
Today, the keynote speaker was Haifa Zangana, a novelist from Iraq. Here is a clip of her speech. The sessions I attended were:
By Any Media Necessary – a workshop on how to teach/engage young people to be critical of the media they consume. Led by Cara Lisa Powers, a media education organizer.
Beating the Old Boys’ Club – a panel of women working in the mainstream media who shared their experiences and gave advice on critiquing sexist stories and images to your employer. [I will include full info on panelists later]
Fact Checking Like a Librarian – Led by librarians and fact-checkers from Radical Reference, a group dedicated to providing solid resources to journalists and activists who question the status quo. We got some excellent resources for finding information about people and subjects normally marginalized in the mainstream media.
[I will have more detailed info and links soon]
This conference has been so much more fun and informative than I expected. I’ve met so many great people, learned so much, and am so much more fired up about the possibilities for change!
At first, I thought I’d just take the info I learned in the sessions back to the journalism department (who sent me) in a memo or e-mail. Now that I know more about new media and where the media are going, I want to give a whole presentation about that, about how the old paradigm of prepping journalism students to go into the daily newspapers is no longer viable (or soon will be no longer viable) – “print is just way too expensive.” The new media is alternative media. If we don’t adapt and integrate, we become extinct.
I really wish I could stay tomorrow. And I really want to come again next year.