Monday, April 20, 2009

Patrick Yack's presentation



Last Friday, the World Affairs Council welcomed over 80 people for a program by Patrick Yack. We were back in the newly renovated Chart Room on the top floor of the Hilton, our usual spot. The last few months have given the room a new shine, and we were glad to be back. Patrick Yack, Atwood Chair of Journalism at UAA, was our speaker. He's held many prestigous journalism and editor positions around the country, and reported from around the globe. Yack's main point was the ever-changing journalism industry and the quality of news that comes from the many media systems we have today.
"The 24-hour news turnaround has become the 24-second."

With the prevalence of at-your-fingertips news sources such as Google Alerts and Twitter, there isn't time for journalists to draft stories. The goal for new and emerging journalists, Yack said, is to have them be as versatile and efficient as possible, and adept at all the different sources of journalism.
While these new forms of news are not necessarily bad, they do run soem risks. Anyone can sign up to write a blog, and there is no way to check soemone's credibility on the Internet. Yack stressed the importance of using legitimate new sources to gain information.
Yack's speech was quick and to the point, allowing lots of time for question-and-answer with the audience. Questions crossed a wide number of topics relating to foreign journalism, the internet news sources, and more. We enjoyed Yack's knowledge on this timely and relevant issue, as all our lives are changing because of it.

Join us this week for Dr. Joseph Ha, Vice President for International Business and Government Relations for Nike Corporation. His speech topic is "Points of Conflict and Cooperation between the United States and China."

--Chloe Miller

No comments: