International Education Week 2015 Keynote Lecture

“The Media Revolution: What It Means for You”

Geneva Overholser, Senior Fellow in the Informed Participation Program, Democracy Fund

Description of Talk

A free press may be the cornerstone of democracy, but America’s legacy media institutions are largely dying businesses today.  The traditional economic model of advertising no longer supports the production of journalism.  Meanwhile, emerging technologies and social media offer new opportunities for citizens both to inform themselves and to create their own content.   But whether these new tools are going to be able to provide the information that a self-governing people must have remains an open question.

Long-time journalist Geneva Overholser will discuss what we’re losing, what we’re gaining, and what our individual responsibilities are in today’s fast-changing media landscape.

Presenter’s Biosketch 

Geneva Overholser is also a senior fellow at the Center for Communication Leadership and Policy at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.  Previously, she was director of the USC Annenberg School of Journalism and held the Curtis B. Hurley Chair in Public Affairs Reporting for the Missouri School of Journalism.  She was also editor of the Des Moines Register, where she led the paper to a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.  She spent five years overseas, working and writing in Paris and Kinshasa.  Overholser is now an independent journalist in New York City, speaking and writing about the future of journalism.