Internet Advocacy Roundtable: The Rise of Online Independent Media
In response to concerns that the mainstream media has abandoned its commitment to real investigative journalism, a new breed of individual citizen bloggers emerged to fill the vacuum. But with a few notable exceptions, bloggers working alone or on small teams are hard pressed to marshal the resources and access necessary to truly meet the challenge of providing hard-hitting, investigative political reporting. Rising to fill this gap between a mainstream media who won't and bloggers who want to, but often can't, a new cadre of independent media websites are meeting the challenge head on. Backed by the financial and staff resources of nonprofits and independent news organizations, independent news websites are combining the best of both worlds, bringing us timely and well-researched investigative journalism once again.
Join us for the July Internet Advocacy Roundtable on FRIDAY, July 25, 2008 for a chance to talk with a panel of independent media publishers and editors drawing from the new online-only and the older offline-gone-online independent alternative media.
Speakers
Roxanne Cooper, Associate Publisher, Philadelphia City Paper
Ali Savino, National Program Director, Center for Independent Media
Tracy Van Slyke, Director, The Media Consortium
Faiz Shakir, Editor-in-Chief, ThinkProgress.org
Bios
Roxanne Cooper is the Associate Publisher at Philadelphia City Paper. She will be celebrating her first 20 years in the newspaper business this August. Prior to moving to Philadelphia, Roxanne was the Director of Sales & Marketing for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. She interned for Mondale's campaign back in '84. She has spent most of her career working at alternative newsweeklies, though she did have a three-year stint with Stars and Stripes in their Tokyo and Washington DC offices. She has "never worked in mainstream media." Roxanne started blogging in 2004 and currently blogs at Rox Populi.
Ali Savino is the co-founder and Program Director of the Center for Independent Media a not-for-profit organization that fosters diversity of ideas in the national debate by educating and training people on the use of new communications technologies. The Center's Fellowships and programs focuses on blogs as an exemplar of independent media. Prior to launching the Center, Ms. Savino had worked with several progressive campaigns and organizations in a number of capacities. Starting with the Dean campaign in 2003, she has been a part of an assorted array of campaigns in various positions. She has worked in numerous states such as Iowa, South Carolina, and New Jersey. Mostly recently she was responsible for developing an Internet strategy for the Democracy Alliance, and blogosphere analysis for Media Matters for America. Previous to Ms. Savino's work in the political and advocacy world, she held software programming positions with companies such as Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Strategic Forecasting and Netegrity. Alexandra Savino is a graduate of Cornell University, with a Bachelors of Engineering degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree with a focus on computer security.
Tracy Van Slyke has dedicated much of her career as a journalist, communications professional and media producer to building a strong independent media infrastructure. She is currently the director of The Media Consortium–a network of the nation's leading, independent progressive media outlets. Through The Media Consortium she works to organize effective partnerships and innovative projects that will change the terms of the American political and cultural debate as well as create a cooperative infrastructure that supports a sustainable future for independent media. She is the former publisher of In These Times magazine, a national, award-winning monthly magazine of progressive news, analysis and cultural reporting. In 2005 and 2006, she and Jessica Clark co-authored the landmark articles on strengthening the progressive media landscape including, "Making Connections: Why is the news so bad? What can progressives do to fix it?" and "Welcome to the Media Revolution: How today's media makers are shaping tomorrow's news." Van Slyke is on the leadership council for the Progressive Communicator's Network–a network of professional strategic communications professionals working with grassroots and social justice organizations and is on the board of directors for the National Training and Information Center. Prior to joining In These Times, she was the Communications Director for the National Training and Information Center, a national non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening grassroots organizations. In 2000, she worked in Knight Ridder's Washington, D.C. bureau during the presidential campaign, covering national politics and events. She also covered city and county government for the Iowa City Gazette in Iowa City, IA in 1999 and 2000. She holds a double BA in Journalism and Mass Communications and Literature, Science and the Arts from the University of Iowa.
Faiz Shakir is the Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Editor-in-Chief of ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report. He holds a B.A. degree in Government from Harvard University and a J.D. degree from the Georgetown Law Center. Faiz has previously worked as a Research Associate for the Democratic National Committee, as a Legislative Aide to Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and as a communications aide in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. His writings have appeared in the Jerusalem Post, Florida Today, and Salon. Faiz has appeared on CNN, Fox News, and CNBC television, among other places, and has been a guest on many radio shows.
Want to see past Roundtables?
Click here for our video and resource archive from past events.
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