"MCLA’s location provided me with endless opportunities to gain professional experience in the arts. I had a lot of fun working as a tour guide at MASS MoCA and in the education department at the Berkshire Museum, which allowed me to figure out what kinds of jobs I would like and to meet a lot of interesting arts professionals along the way. MCLA’s small size helped me develop close working relationships with my favorite professors who always took time to advise me on academic and professional concerns. I really felt like they were with me all the way."
Monica Henry ’07 Education Coordinator, Clark Art Institute
News & Press Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information contact:
December 1, 2005 Robert Bishoff, 662-5372 or
Bill Densmore (cell: 458-8001)
NORTH ADAMS, Mass., Dec. 9, 2005 -- Unprecedented change in America’s news media and the potential threat to the survival of traditional journalism are topics of a new, three-credit evening course, which will meet Thursdays beginning Jan. 19 at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
“The rise of the Internet and the fragmentation of advertising undermine the financing of in-depth and watchdog reporting by mainstream media,” says Robert Bishoff, chairman of the English/Communication Department at MCLA. “This course is designed to give students – and the public – the opportunity to understand these changes and how they may affect participatory democracy and community.”
The course, “The Future of Journalism: Issues and Opportunities in a Connected World,” is being organized and taught by visiting lecturer Bill Densmore, director and editor of The Media Giraffe Project with support from the Hardman Family Foundation at MCLA. Besides traditional readings, the 6:30 p.m.-9:15 p.m. sessions each Thursday will use films, video and audio from contemporary websites as well as invited speakers and panelists.
“We’re aiming for a lively mix of brief lectures, group participation around readings, guest visits, panel discussion and viewing of web-based multimedia materials from The Media Giraffe Project and elsewhere,” says Densmore. “We’ll give participants a sense of options and tools for participating in the new environment as citizen journalists.”
Besides MCLA students, and Williams College students who may cross-enroll, the sessions are open to Massachusetts citizens over age 60 at no charge. Massachusetts residents under 60 may enroll by paying standard three-credit tuitions and fees prior to the first session on Jan. 19.
For a detailed course description, planned materials and session topics, view the course syllabus at: http://www.mediagiraffe.org/docs/syllabus.doc (or syllabus.pdf). A weblog has been established for the course and will be a resource for updates on assignments, planned class schedules, appearances and discussions, reading and resource materials and links.
The Media Giraffe Project (http://www.mediagiraffe.org) is a non-partisan research effort, which finds and spotlights individuals making innovative, sustainable use of media (old and new) to foster participatory democracy and community. Its aim is to encourage “above the crowd” work by established journalists, and detail unique services which citizens can use or emulate.
The Hardman Family Foundation at MCLA endows a lecture series, academic research, a student scholarship and the MCLA archives in the name of the family that formerly published The North Adams Transcript.
