We are gearing up for the Beyond Jena forum on Saturday. We’ll be closing registration soon, but there is still a little room left, so if you want to attend please hurry up and register. We just reached our maximum capacity and registration is now closed.
I’m moderating the first panel, “The Rise of Blogging and Grassroots Media as Tools for Social Justice in New Orleans and Beyond.” The panelists are known in the blogosphere as Cliff, E.J. and G-Bitch. Also on-board is Paul Beualieu, who hosts the afternoon show on WBOK 1230 AM.
I thought I’d try something a little different. I’m going to post the potential discussion topics here, so that anyone and everyone can feel free to read, react, make suggestions, or just mull them over. These are still a little raw and should be fleshed out in my second draft. By no means should these be considered final. This is my way of “thinking out loud.”
- Tell us about your blog — or radio show. What do you write/talk about? Why this medium as opposed to any other? And why — what motivates you to keep after it?
- Tell us about your audience — how many readers/listeners do you have, and who are they? How do you relate to them?
- Did you address the Jena protests (before or after) in your venue? How did Jena affect you personally, and how did it affect your blogging, if at all?
- Moving beyond Jena, in what ways do you connect to issues of social justice in NOLA? Do you feel your voice can make a difference, and if so how?
- Finally, let’s factor in higher education. How can universities more effectively engage with the larger community, and vice versa, and what role can blogging and grassroots media play in this?
With four people speaking to each question we may actually have trouble covering all that. We’re allotting an hour for the panel and an hour for Q&A. In my past experience with such panels, there’s never enough time allotted for Q&A, but hopefully this will be different.
Thoughts?
Program looks great, good luck and look forward to learning how things went.