FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Renaissance Journalism Center and ZeroDivide
425 Bush Street, Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94108
Contact: Valerie Chow Bush, 510-593-7099
• Photo of Benjamin Todd Jealous available upon request.
• Interviews available upon request.
• Conference participants will be able to interview Mr. Jealous for about 30 minutes following the closing reception at 7pm.
NAACP PRESIDENT BENJAMIN TODD JEALOUS TO SPEAK AT AUGUST 28 MULTIMEDIA TRAINING CONFERENCE FOR THE ETHNIC AND COMMUNITY NEWS MEDIA
San Francisco (August 12, 2009)—NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous will be the keynote speaker at a groundbreaking multimedia training conference for the ethnic and community news media sponsored by the Renaissance Journalism Center and ZeroDivide on August 28. The conference, Seizing the Moment, is being conducted in collaboration with New America Media and will be held at San Francisco State University College of Extended Learning, 835 Market Street, San Francisco, from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Jealous will speak during the closing reception from 5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
Jealous is no stranger to the indispensable role the ethnic and community media plays as a vital voice for the communities it serves. During his career, he was a reporter at the Jackson Advocate (Mississippi), an African American newspaper, where he exposed corruption among high-ranking officials at a state prison and helped to acquit a black farmer who had been wrongfully and maliciously accused of arson. Jealous was eventually promoted to managing editor at the paper. He later became the executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a federation of more than 200 black community newspapers, and is credited with rebuilding the 90-year-old national news service and launching a Web-based initiative that more than doubled the number of black newspapers publishing online.
“Benjamin Jealous is not only a longtime community activist and civic leader, but a former journalist who advocated tirelessly for the African American press,” said Jon Funabiki, founding director of the Renaissance Journalism Center. “He can speak knowledgeably and passionately about the challenges—and opportunities— currently facing the ethnic and community news media as it struggles to survive in these tough economic times and to adapt to ever-changing technologies, all the while continuing to meet the news and informational needs of its diverse communities.”
Jealous is the 17th president and chief executive officer of the NAACP, and the youngest person to hold the position in the organization’s nearly 100-year history. In addition to his work in journalism, he has served as president of the Rosenberg Foundation, a private independent institution that funds civil and human rights advocacy to benefit California’s working families. He was also the director of the U.S. Human Rights Program at Amnesty International, where he led efforts to pass federal legislation against prison rape and rebuilt public consensus against racial profiling in the wake of September 11. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University and a master’s degree in comparative social research from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Seizing the Moment, a multimedia journalism training conference, has been designed with the ethnic and community news media’s needs in mind. It features two multimedia skills boot camps, one taught bilingually in Spanish and English, and a wide selection of workshops on Web site development and design; social networking; business innovations; and storytelling techniques. The conference is the first in a series of affordable classes, workshops, and training conferences the Renaissance Journalism Center and ZeroDivide will be cosponsoring over the next several years.
EVENT DETAILS
Seizing the Moment: A Multimedia Journalism Training Conference for the Ethnic and Community News Media
Friday, August 28, 2009*
Program: 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
Reception: 5:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.
San Francisco State University College of Extended Learning
835 Market Street, 6th floor, San Francisco
Registration Fee: $25 per person
For more information and to register, visit www.rjcmedia.org
Phone: 415-773-0388, extension 333
E-mail: info@rjcmedia.org
* The boot camp, Producing Multimedia Content, has an additional training on Thursday, 8/27, 1pm–4pm. Both boot camps require preregistration as space is limited to 16 per boot camp.
About the Renaissance Journalism Center at San Francisco State University
The Renaissance Journalism Center (RJC) is a new initiative of the San Francisco State University Journalism Department. The Center conducts research, training and other programs to identify and to spark promising journalistic models and practices that serve, strengthen and empower communities. This initiative comes at a time when the news media are experiencing revolutionary and disruptive change, offering both challenge and opportunity. RJC seeks to ensure that the concerns and interests of communities are served as media, technology and business evolve.
http://rjcmedia.org
About ZeroDivide
ZeroDivide invests in media projects that leverage technology to benefit people in low-income, minority and other disadvantaged communities. A nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, ZeroDivide’s investments in underserved communities create groundbreaking enterprises, capture important but suppressed voices, distribute content in diverse ways, and collectively influence policies and practices to enhance and mobilize community-based assets for social change.
http://zerodivide.org/
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