Gettin’ to Memphis

This January, the third National Conference for Media Reform will be held in Memphis, TN. It will be a gathering of activists, journalists, producers, writers, bloggers, tech geeks, concerned citizens, academics and even students like myself. The purpose? To discuss the current state of the media, new media forms and to rally for more media voices in the public dialogue. I attended the previous conference in St. Louis and it was a rather amazing experience. Quite intimidating and humbling but altogether inspiring. In fact, it inspired me to not only continue my interest in media but also to donate volunteer time to the effort. If I go to Memphis, the Fernsehturm blog will there with me.

My work in graduate school and my interests prior to that have increasingly been focused on mainstream media and it’s behavior as an industry. Currently, I’m looking into blogs written by mainstream media journalists and whether the blogs add value to the public discourse and to the media outlet that produces them. This conference would have a lot for me in regards to both my studies and my future pursuits. So much to learn in such a short couple of days in Memphis!

My biggest hurdle now is to find some funding. I’ve pursuing an option through the Graduate School. Because they require me to present at the conference in order to be eligible for funding, it’ll be up to me to explain to them that blogging at a conference about a conference (even with official blogging credentials!) counts as presenting. In other words, presenting at a conference no longer means what it used to mean!

Wish me luck! I will update my progress here!