VivirLatino

I am very excited that I have been asked to participate in this event. I will be focusing my presentation on independent media making and the role that gender, class, and race play in activist social media. I hope some of you can watch and please feel free to send me ideas, suggestions or love letters of encouragement.

KU journalism students to host virtual summit on diversity and social media

LAWRENCE – Students from the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications (http://www.journalism.ku.edu/) at the University of Kansas will host an online virtual summit entitled “Telling Stories of Diversity in the Digital Age” on December 4 in Stauffer-Flint 100 on the University of Kansas campus.

The summit begins at 11 a.m. CST/ 12 p.m. EST with an introduction by Associate Professor Simran Sethi (http://simransethi.com/), who teaches Diversity in Media, a course cross-listed in the schools of journalism and social welfare. “I wanted to highlight the ways in which journalists and non-journalists alike are participating in a broader range of storytelling through the use of Twitter, blogs, Facebook and other digital platforms like the iPad. This course, culminating in the digital summit, is the ideal format for a deep exploration of participatory media and opportunities for the democratization of storytelling.”

Sethi will be followed by a series of guest lecturers covering topics including Social Media and the Notion of a Post Racial America; Women in New Media; Global Social Media: Giving Us a Voice, Or Limiting Whose Voice is Heard; and Different Voices, Same Technology.

The summit is co-presented with UNITY: Journalists of Color (http://www.unityjournalists.org/index.php), a strategic alliance advocating fair and accurate news coverage about people of color, and will include concluding remarks from Executive Director Onica Makwakwa. The event will be streamed live via Ustream on the UNITY homepage (http://www.unityjournalists.org/index.php) and the University of Kansas School of Journalism homepage (http://www.journalism.ku.edu/). The summit will be liveblogged on Twitter under the hashtag #digitaldiversity. Twitter participants will be given the opportunity to ask questions directly to the speakers and are eligible for a free HD Flip video camera courtesy of UNITY.

Those interested in participating are encouraged to do so via the UNITY website, the KU School of Journalism website, or by attending in person.

A complete schedule of events follows and can also be found on the summit fan page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/KU-Journalism-Telling-Stories-of-Diversity-in-the-Digital-Age/169849916372666?v=wall):

11-11:10 a.m. CST / 12-12:10 p.m. EST – Welcome from KU William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications Dean Ann Brill.

Summit Introduction by Simran Sethi, Associate Professor, KU School of Journalism.

11:10 a.m.-12:20 p.m. CST / 12:10-1:20 p.m. EST – Social Media and the Notion of a Post Racial America

Chris Rabb – A visiting researcher at Princeton and a nationally recognized thought leader on the intersection of social identity, entrepreneurship, politics and media, and the author.

LaToya Peterson – Editor of Racialicious.com.

Shawn Williams – Award-winning president and editor of DallasSouthNews.org, which began as DallasSouthBlog.com.

12:30-1:40 p.m. CST / 1:30-2:40 p.m. EST – Women in New Media

Maegan la Mala Ortiz – Managing Editor and Co-Publisher of VivirLatino.com who considers herself a radical Rican media maker.

Marcia Yerman – Writer and co-founder of cultureID, a social community dedicated to creating a connection between activism and the arts.

Pat Lynch – Experienced, charitable media maven focused on strengthening women’s media voices, and the CEO and Founder of Women’s Online Media and Education Network (W.O.M.E.N.).

Shelby Knox – Feminist blogger, writer and activist, who according her blog The Ms. Education of Shelby Knox, is “an Upper East Side girl via Lubbock exiled to the West Village – a lover of animals, a women’s history geek and a policy wonk in training.”

Erin Vest – Former award-winning reporter turned blogger, now the Social Media Strategist at the largest women’s blogging network: BlogHer.

1:50-2:50 p.m. CST / 2:50-3:50 p.m. EST – Global Social Media: Giving Us a Voice, Or Limiting Whose Voice is Heard.

Nick Valencia – National Desk Editor for CNN, who has extensively covered Mexico’s drug related violence for CNN.

Vicky Lu – TV news reporter for Chinese State Operated News Press, who has first-hand experience living in a government with heavy social media restrictions.

Sekombi Katondolo – Dancer, artist, filmmaker, community organizer, journalist, and center director for Yole! Africa Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Goran Sabah Ghafour – Reporter, editor and author from Kurdistan. Currently studying at the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas.

3-4 p.m. CST / 4-5 p.m. EST – Different Voices, Same Technology

Shannon Des Roches Rosa – Writer, editor, autism advocate who writes fearlessly and compassionately about parenting, autism, and geekery.

Robin Deutsch – Chief executive manager for PsychMoo, a networking site for the “mentally interesting.”

David Morrison – 23 year-old disabilities columnist with StarNewsMedia in Wilmington, NC, currently attending school and living with a disability.

Maria Holter – Entrepreneur and proud mom with a documentary film background on a quest to put mainstream equipment, smart software and new media in the hands of non-verbal people for communication, learning, fun and social networking.

4-4:10 p.m. CST / 5-5:10 p.m. EST – Conclusion by Onica Makwakwa, Executive Director of UNITY: Journalists of Color.