TCU Hosts Journalism Symposium

    Some of us didn't get enough in college, so I appreciate it when a university lets me in to soak up a little more brain juice. Last week — the seventh annual journalism symposium hosted by TCU. I heard from several organizers it was the biggest hit of them all.

“This is one of the largest crowds we’ve ever had for the symposium,” moderator Bob Schieffer said as he pulled up his pant leg and flashed his new purple boots with TCU stitched in white leather. He had bought them at Lusky’s earlier that day. The full room roared with approval of his latest purchase.

Panelists included the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, founder of The Huffington Post, Ariana Huffington and FOX news’ senior political analyst, Brit Hume. Hot issues like Wall Street greed and the fate of journalism darted around the room like a boomerang.

Schieffer started the cordial quarrel. He said he’s never seen the government quite like it is right now. Hume came up to bat and said the liberals are more liberal and the conservatives more conservative. I can’t help but wonder if it's because news media has turned away from reporting and towards the game of political mudslinging. Newsflash: there is a difference between a news commentator and a news anchor.

Blurry picture of panelists. Bob Schieffer is in the middle. 

Scarborough made me happy when he said news media needs to “tone it down … this isn’t just about ratings.” He’s right. Journalists have a duty to society before shareholders' profit. Or do they? They are the Fourth Estate (fourth branch of government). They are the watchdogs of the country with a noble history of outing the corrupt. We need them to focus on the facts and not on hurling insults.

The topics changed faster than a schoolgirl does boyfriends, so forgive my poor transitions. No editor here, folks.

Next topic was the impact of social media in the Middle East. These American creations — Facebook and Twitter — are very democratic forms of media. There is no longer solely a government or corporate run media giant transmitting messages to the masses. We create the content too. Information now flows from the media consumers and giants. This gives people in authoritarian countries, like those in the Middle East, more power than they’ve ever had. They also have access to vital information that was traditionally withheld. Thus, we are witnessing the most fascinating piece of history — revolutions all over the Middle East. And Hume brought up a cool point.

“There was no leader in this revolution,” he said.

People organized themselves through new media. I wonder what user-generated media like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter will do for the world next.

The fate of journalism? Most of the panelists said they had no idea where it is going. Schieffer said we will always need good journalism, but the mediums will change. Scarborough said it will be something that doesn’t require 20 producers and editors. Journalists will need to do it all on their own. Ugh.

I thank TCU for letting a member of the community like me be involved. Stay tuned and click this link for upcoming TCU events like author of The Color Purple, Alice Walker, coming to speak. I've always enjoyed the plays there as well. Just some ideas. 

 Panelists covered more issues than I have room for in this post that were equally as fascinating. Tickets were $20 and students got in free. It was a sold out event. 


P.S. I just found out that Vision FW is hosting a Fort Worth Mayoral Candidate Forum 5-7 p.m. May 4 at the Brown Lupton Union Auditorium. Click here for more information.