The Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy hosts a weekly speaker series throughout the academic year, as well as other special events. The fall 2014 semester featured a range of perspectives shared by visiting speakers, who discussed some of the year’s most important issues.
The following are audio and video highlights from the past year:
Race relations: Michele Norris, host and special correspondent for NPR, discussed her work with the Race Card Project, a way to begin a new conversation about race and cultural identity.
Changes in the news industry: David Carr, columnist for the New York Times, shared his thoughts on changing media models. Miriam Elder, foreign editor for Buzzfeed, discussed the media outlet’s growing coverage of public affairs. Charles M. Blow, columnist for the New York Times, discussed his career path in the news business.
Elections — 2014 and beyond: Amy Walter, national editor of the Cook Political Report, discussed strategies and potential outcomes in advance of the 2014 midterm elections. Panelists discussed the state of political media, data journalism, polling, and the 2016 elections at the Theodore H. White Seminar on Press and Politics. Featuring Jill Abramson, former executive editor of the New York Times and visiting lecturer at Harvard University; Kristen Soltis Anderson, IOP Fellow and co-founder of Echelon Insights; Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, managing co-editors of Bloomberg Politics; and David Rogers, reporter for Politico.
Unrest in the Middle East: Deborah Amos, Middle East correspondent for NPR, shared her insights on Syria’s media landscape. Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for The Atlantic, discussed the increasing dangers of reporting on the Middle East.
The Supreme Court: Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor at Slate and a prominent legal analyst, expressed deep concerns about the relationship between the press and the U.S. Supreme Court. Margaret H. Marshall, former chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, shared her concerns about the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the First Amendment, and its impact on democracy, civic discourse, and privacy at the annual Salant Lecture.
Surveillance and privacy: Julia Angwin, senior reporter for ProPublica, explored the difficulties of evading online tracking and data-mining.
A full list of past Shorenstein Center events can be found in the calendar archive. You can also subscribe to the iTunes feed or SoundCloud to hear these and other conversations.
Keywords: Shorenstein Center, speaker series, new media, Supreme Court, Middle East
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