With the intensive post-analysis of the presidential election last year, we had the beginnings of a national conversation on the new reality of how people are consuming news. “Fake news” has superseded real news in troubling ways. Selective exposure, filter bubbles, echo chambers, confirmation bias, implicit bias, and other terms have entered common dialogue. But suggested solutions are rare.Manya Brachear Pashman (The Chicago Tribune), Mariam Sobh (CBS Radio), Emily McFarlan Miller (Religion News Service), Bud Heckman (Interfaith Funders Group, Religions for Peace USA), and I will host the conversation Covering Religion in an Age of Corporatized Media and Self-Made Bubbles at St. James Cathedral in downtown Chicago on Friday, March 31 at 1:30-2:45 pm.
This special workshop–free and open to the public–will focus on the challenges and responsibilities of religious media professionals, improving the choices and options of consumers, and the future of news about religion and faith.
This workshop is a special program of the 2017 Religion Communicators Convention, where I’ll also be talking about blogging and creating online spiritual community and sharing my experience with Sick Pilgrim. Here’s a link to the full conference schedule for more information.
Other free, public events scheduled during the convention include:
Filmed over the course of nearly three years, the filmmakers use unique access and never before heard testimonies to tell a story of the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting of schoolchildren in American history on December 14, 2012. Newtown documents a traumatized community fractured by grief and driven toward a sense of purpose. It’s an intimate story of community resilience.
Visit the Religion Communicators Council website for more information.
Jessica Mesman 