Free Digital Storytelling Classes Offered at KETC/Channel 9 This Fall

KETC/Channel 9 is offering free digital storytelling classes designed to teach participants how to edit video using Apple’s Final Cut Express. The course gives community members an opportunity to develop a better understanding of the current media landscape and how they can become more engaged citizens empowered by new media. Participants will learn how to become fluent in the language of the digital age by using video to build a story. Class graduates will then become part of a network of community producers who can be deployed for KETC initiatives that address relevant community issues.

Classes are associated with Channel 9 projects; currently, KETC/Channel 9 is working on an immigration initiative called Homeland.  Thus, the topic of the current series of classes is immigration and how we as a community should deal with this complicated issue.  Class participants will be loaned a small digital handheld camera and will be asked to interview people regarding their opinions about immigration; they will then turn these interviews into a digital story that may be used online in association with Homeland (visit www.explorehomeland.org).

Classes are held at KETC, 3655 Olive St. in Grand Center.  No experience is required. Students are supplied with everything necessary including the use of equipment during class and lab hours.  At the end of the course, students will have produced a video, from 30 seconds to 3 minutes in length.

Saturdays in September
9/11, 9/18, and 9/25
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

September 13 to October 1
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Optional lab 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

September 14 to October 7
Tuesday, Thursday
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Optional lab 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

October 4 to October 22
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Optional lab 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

October 12 to November 4
Tuesday, Thursday
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Optional lab 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

October 25 to November 12
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Optional lab 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

November 9 to December 9
Tuesday, Thursday
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Optional lab 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
***No class week of 11/22

November 15 to December 10
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
Optional lab 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
***No class week of 11/22

GMLP Media Literacy Week 2010 Calendar

Sunday, October 3

Media Literacy Week Kick-Off

• 2:30-4 p.m.  Webster University / Sunnan Lounge, University Center
• Message from the President: “Media Literacy: Truth or Consequences”
• Proclamations
  
• Charles Klotzer Media Literacy Awards

Monday, October 4

Panel Discussion: “How Do You Make an App?”

• 1 p.m. STLCC-Meramec /  Business Administration Room 105
• Moderator: Kim Gordon
  

“Embrace Your Digital World With Schooltube”

• 11 a.m. Ladue Horton Watkins High School 1201 S. Warson Rd, 63124 Ladue Performance Arts Center, Black Box Theater (south parking Lot)
• With an abundance of video-hosting Web sites increasing available but school districts blocking most of them, please join Ladue School district’s broadcast technology teacher, Don Goble, as he talks about how he integrates Schooltube.com into his curriculum to teach his students to become mindful media creators. Don will also demonstrate how easy it is to upload student, teacher or district produced videos to Schooltube’s website.  Finally, learn about all the vaulable resources and services Schooltube offers educators and students.

Film and Panel Discussion: The Matrix

• 7 p.m.  Webster University / Winifred Moore Auditorium
• Moderator: Art Silverblatt
  

Tuesday, October 5

“Putting Media Literacy to Work in the Classroom”, A Frank Baker Workshop for Teachers

• 7-9 p.m.  STLCC-Meramec / Student Center room 200
  
• Join Frank Baker for this hands-on, interactive workshop designed to help K-12 educators feel more comfortable incorporating media literacy into instruction.

Wednesday, October 6

“Media Literacy and Political Campaigns/Political Advertising”, a Keynote Address by Frank Baker

• 11 a.m. —STLCC-Meramec / Student Center room 200

Panel Discussion: “Fact-Checking and the Politicians: Lies, Half-Truths, and the Consequences of Each”

• Noon,  STLCC-Meramec / Student Center room 200
• Panelists: Frank Baker, author of Political Campaigns and Political Advertising: A Media Literacy Guide; Dr. John Messmer, political science professor at Meramec
  
• Co-sponsored by The Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis

“Mental Health and Substance Abuse Messages: Truth or Consequences”

• 2 p.m.  Cori Auditorium/Washington University Medical Center
• Direct-to-consumer advertising and other media channels have had a major impact on how we receive, process, and evaluate messages about mental health, alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Engage local experts in talk about these messages, and strategies for educating students and the public to be informed consumers of health messages.
  
• Panelists: Dorothy Van Buren, PhD, Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, and Dan Duncan, Director of Community Services, National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse – St. Louis Area (NCADA).  Moderator: Will Olmstadt, Public Health Librarian, Becker Medical Library

Panel Discussion: “The Changing Face of Journalism: How the Internet Impacts News Gathering and Reporting”

• 7:15 p.m.  Lindenwood University-St. Charles Campus / Elizabeth Dunseth Auditorium, Harmon Hall
• Panelists: Eric Mink, Aaron Mermelstein, Brian Thouvenot of KMOV, and Casey Nolan of KSDK Moderator: Jill Falk, Lindenwood University Assistant Professor of Communications and LUTV News Director
  

Thursday, October 7

Panel Discussion: “Media and Environmental Literacy”

• 11 a.m.  STLCC-Meramec / Library Confluence Room
• Panelists: Dr. Suzanne Loui, Washington University, Dr. Don Corrigan, Webster University, Dr. Diane Carson, president of the University Film and Video Association, and Dr. Wil Loy, STLCC-Meramec

Panel Discussion: “Don’t Fall for Bad Reporting: Media Literacy and Elections”

• 7 p.m.  Washington University-University College / January Hall room 110
  Moderator: Repps Hudson

Friday, October 8

Student Panel Discussion–Sponsored by Meramec’s Award-Winning Student Newspaper, The Montage

• 11 a.m.  STLCC-Meramec / Business Administration room 105

“Steps Through Time: Journeys in the Middle East”, a Photography Exhibit

• 2-4 p.m.  Saint Louis University / The Walter J Ong Center for Language, Culture, and Media
  Thomas Oats Exhibit Opening
• Documentary photographs by Dr. Thomas Oates that will open with a reception and colloquium on the 2nd Floor of the Pius Memorial Library at Saint Louis University

Panel Discussion: “Labor Issues and the Media”

• 4:30 p.m. STLCC-Meramec / Business Administration room 105
  
• What happened to the Labor Beat in American Media?  Do the media avoid labor coverage, because they have their own problems?  How do the excessive labor demands on journalists in the new media environment affect news content?
  
• Panelists: Paul Rainsberger, Director, Labor Education-MU, Dana Spitzer, Labor Tribune, Shannon Duffy, The St. Louis Newspaper Guild, Moderated by Don Corrigan, Webster University
  

Saturday, October 9

Academic Symposium at Webster University

• Library Conference Room
• 9-10:15 Session I
• 10:30-noon Session II

Cell Phone Revolution Just Beginning in US

Look around at any place that Americans gather today and it’s obvious that cell phones have become an integral—perhaps even ubiquitous– part of everyday life in the US.   Yet compared to other countries, US cell phone usage is only in its infancy.

Clyde Bentley, Ph.D. Journalism Professor at University of Missouri shared his experiences and observations in his talk “Using the Third Screen” at the St. Louis Chapter of Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) August 18th.

Right now in the United States 95% of the total population owns a cell phone.  That statistic translates to a cell phone for every working adult considering that 5 % of the population is under the age of 5 years old.  Nearly half of American families are not buying a family camera but rather using the camera on their phone.

Bentley said that soon there will be more cell phones than people in the US and that by 2013 more users will access the Internet by cell phone than by PC.  This means that cell phone technology is a communication medium with the capability of reaching nearly all people which makes it unique when compared with radio, TV, newspaper, Internet, social media, and Twitter.

Another distinction of cell phone technology is its portability and the way cell phones function as an extension of self—an extra eye, ear and piece of our brain–as opposed to being just a device or tool.  This element fundamentally changes the way human beings interact and conduct their daily lives in the way that the wristwatch did the same when it was adopted.

While it appears that Americans have embraced cell phone technology, the trends in other countries like the Philippines, Japan, India and China, indicate we that we’ve only just begun our love affair with our cell phones.

Bentley went on to discuss how the dissemination of real-time news is being transformed via cell phone technology.  News organizations find that over 100 pictures can be taken by citizens before a reporter has a chance to get to the scene of a newsworthy event.  It won’t be long before Americans will receive news updates via 160 character text messages embedded with phone numbers to call at 10 minute intervals to hear up-to- the-minute posts recorded by the reporter on the scene.

He said that today the future runs quickly and the future is not very long.  He experiences this when his college freshmen joke about how much more tech-savvy they are than his college seniors.

For early adopters of technology Bentley went on to outline use of QR codes, supercamera phones and LTE/4G technology.

For reluctant technology users he advised “Don’t be afraid.  You’re smarter than any device—the device is just a machine!”

Using the 3rd Screen August 18th, 11:30 – 1:15

Join PRSA as Clyde Bentley, Associate Professor of Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism, reports on how Americans have embraced cell phone technology faster than any technology in history and what that means for communications professionals.  Bentley spent his 2009 – 2010 Fellowship year at the Reynolds Journalism Institute exploring the marketing opportunities opened up by ‘smart phones’ as well as ‘dumb’ ones.  Call (636) 256-3090 to register for this timely lecture.

Public Camp St. Louis

PubCampSTL is a day-long event, Aug. 14,  sponsored by KETC/Channel 9, St. Louis Public Radio and the St. Louis Beacon, and will be held at KETC/Channel 9, in Grand Center, St. Louis.
The camp explores ways public media can work with the St. Louis community to address important issues in our region. The goal of PubCampSTL is to strengthen the relationship of public media in St. Louis with our community through the creation of collaborative projects.

More details, registration and a list of community participants already signed up for the offering are available at  www.pubcampstl.eventbrite.com

Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis Funds Enterprise Journalism

Early in 2009, the Press Club began cooking up a great idea: establishing a fund to spur enterprise reporting in our region.  By fall, we began to see the fruits of our labors.

We recognized that great journalism is both labor intensive and at times costly. If we wanted to see reporting that genuinely improves and enhances civic life, we knew that we would have to find a way to pay for it.  We decided that one way to do that was to put our money where our mouths are.

The Press Club provided grants to journalists who proposed stories that shine a light on an under-reported community topic. With $5,000 in assistance from the family of the late St. Louis Post-Dispatch feature writer and editor Nancy Miller, the Press Club set aside $20,000 for the first round of enterprising stories.

Initial grants were awarded to:

• Nancy Larson, a freelance writer whose work was the first enterprise project and was published last fall in the St. Louis Beacon. It is a three-part series called “Ready or Not: Can St. Louis Cope with a Catastrophe”.  http://www.stlbeacon.org/content/view/12535/143/
• Ellen Futterman, editor, and Larry Levin, publisher, St. Louis Jewish Light.  Their series on hate crimes, “The Faces of Hate”, ran in the Light on May 26 and began running in the St. Louis Beacon the same day.  http://www.stlbeacon.org/content/view/102620/482/
• C.D. Stelzer, a freelance writer whose two-part story on a mysterious East Side military aviation business, “Under the Radar”, appeared May 7 in the online site Focus Midwest. http://focusmidwest.com/
• Phil Dine, a freelance writer, author and former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter whose story on the impact of immigration in our region will soon appear in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The Press Club offered these grants at a time when the region’s media outlets are suffering through the worst recession in decades and have cut their staffs and reporting budgets.

We are proud that the Press Club can provide this vital service and we are proud of the results.  And we are looking forward to doing more. We continue to accept applications and intend to raise more money to fund new projects. More information on how to both donate to the program and apply for fellowships can be found on the Press Club’s website at stlpressclub.org.

Health Literacy Missouri is First in Nation to Activate National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy

Health Literacy Missouri’s (HLM’s) recent press conference in St. Louis, to unveil the National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy, was an especially welcomed occasion for the more than 200  of us who had, two years earlier, attended the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (US DHHS)/Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH)-sponsored town hall meeting at the University of Missouri – St. Louis.

At that May 2008 meeting, we heard about significant health literacy activities around the state, as well as nationally, from renowned health professionals and educators,  and then we broke out into groups where we gave our input as to what should be in this plan to improve health literacy..

According to the lead author of the national action plan, Dr. Cynthia Baur,  an HLM board member and senior advisor for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the St. Louis town hall meeting saw the greatest attendance of all of the town hall meetings across the country.  It’s no wonder Missouri is the first state to activate the national  initiative.

HLM, an MFH-funded entity is headed by Dr. Arthur Culbert,  president and chief executive officer.  “At HLM, our goal is to improve the health status of all Missourians while becoming a national leader in health literacy,”  he said,  in connection with the unveiling of the national action plan.   “We are proud to say that we already have community-based initiatives operating across the state.  and we are excited about the action call, which will inspire us to do even more.”   (link to National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy   www.healthliteracymissouri.org )

Gateway Media Literacy Partners (GMLP) has been a participant in this process for more than two years, now,  and looks forward to continuing  to secure media literacy education’s place in HLM’s overall efforts.  GMLP strongly believes  it can  help strengthen this effort to create health literate citizens.  Health literacy, a subset of media literacy, is an extremely important discussion given media’s numerous messages and the subsequent need to have the critical thinking skills that media literacy education teaches us.    Absorbing, understanding and then wisely acting on those myriad media messages can be that much more meaningful and far less daunting via media literacy education.    Empowerment–  to be much better-equipped  to make health decisions on a personal as well as public basis—is something for which the media literacy education community already has a track record.

”The National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy seeks to engage organizations, professionals, policymakers, communities, individuals, and families in a comprehensive effort to improve health literacy,” Dr. Culbert said, recently.  Not only is GMLP poised to enliven HLM efforts, it is tremendously energized by the synergies that can be derived from a continuing relationship with Health Literacy Missouri, especially as HLM continues to be a key leader in supporting the national plan.

Jessica Z. Brown is president and founder of Gateway Media Literacy Partners, Inc.

Deadline Extended – GMLP’s Fourth Annual Media Literacy Week Academic Symposium

I’m pleased to present the Call for Submissions for GMLP’s Media Literacy Academic Symposium. This is a celebration of talent showcasing academic expertise in media literacy education, and we’re looking to our members to help us increase participation in this meaningful GMLP undertaking.

Please be mindful, this is not just  for those practicing media literacy in the formal classroom.  The informal classroom–afterschool programs, senior programs, programs in our faith-based institutions and allied health environments –is an integral part of the media literacy education community.

The symposium is also a great forum for those who aspire to integrate media literacy into their work, and just need inspiration or a jump start!

As members, YOU  already bring a sensibility to this effort, and you have the reach to allow us to expand participation in the only media literacy education symposium of its kind in Missouri and Illinois.

Therefore, we’re asking that YOU participate…either by responding to this call for submissions, yourself, and/or by getting this call out to those you believe would be interested in showcasing their work.

This symposium is INSPIRING!   If nothing else, please jot down  the date and join us,  Oct. 9, at Webster University.  The deadline for submissions has been extended to July 15th.  See link above for more information.

Thank you for your support, and for helping to spread the word about GMLP’s Media Literacy Academic Symposium.

The Press Club Sponsors Hate Crime Series Produced by the Jewish Light

In case you missed it, The Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis sponsored a Hate Crime series produced by the Jewish Light.  Segments were featured on KTRS and KWMU.

Gateway Media Literacy Partners, Inc. Elects New Board Members

Gateway Media Literacy Partners (GMLP), which promotes media literacy in the St. Louis region, has elected three new members to its board of directors, each to a three-year term.

“Each of these individuals will bring a unique and interesting perspective to GMLP,” said Jessica Brown, founder and president of GMLP.  “All have previously been energetically involved in GMLP’s efforts to enhance vital media literacy skills throughout our region.”

Elected were:

Eric Meyer, assistant professor of English at St. Louis Community College-Meramec and head of the school’s Honors College of English, has been involved with GMLP since the organization’s inception in 2004.  Meyer created Meramec’s highly-regarded Media Education Week, which recently merged with GMLP’s Media Literacy Week.  He is serving as 2010 co-chair of GMLP’s Media Literacy Week October 3-10.








Cindy Pulley is the project development specialist for Youth Empowerment in Action at the University of Missouri-St.-Louis. Pulley is a former high school communication arts and journalism teacher and a former Maryville faculty member.  She was recently elected to the executive board of the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE).




Gloria S. Ross, principal of Okara Communications/AfterWords and a contributing obituary writer for the St. Louis Beacon, is president-elect of the Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis.  Ross has been a Press Club liaison to GMLP for the past year, coordinating the Media Literacy Week forum “Emerging Business Models in the Media Industry” in 2009.












For more information, contact Jessica Brown at (314) 567-0265 or jessicazbrown@gmlpstl.org.

Click here for full news release.

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