The Press and the Presidency in the Post-truth Era

The Press and the Presidency in the Post-Truth Era banner

The College of Journalism and Mass Communications, with co-sponsorship by the College of Arts and Sciences, will host “The Press and the Presidency in the Post-truth Era” from 8:30 a.m. – 5:15 p.m. on Friday, March 10, in Andersen Hall. The daylong event will be the first in a series on “The Media and Politics.” Please mark your calendars for the second event in the series on Friday, Nov. 10, 2017.

Presentations on March 10 will be as follows:

Morning: In ANDERSEN Room 15 (Auditorium):
8:30 a.m. Welcome Address
Maria Marron
, Dean, College of Journalism and Mass Communications
8:35 – 9:20 a.m. Nic Dawes, Deputy Director for Media, Human Rights Watch, New York:
“The demagogue’s playbook: press freedom, accountability, and post-factual populism”
9:30-10:15 a.m. Gary Kebbel, Professor, CoJMC, University of Nebraska–Lincoln:
“From Gatekeeper to Guide: The Press’s New Role in Politics in a World of Mobile and Social Media”
10:15-10:30 a.m. Coffee BREAK
10:30-11:15 a.m. Debra Mason, Professor, Director on the Center on Religion & the Profession, University of Missouri:
“God’s will? Evangelicals, the media and Trump”
11:30 – 1 p.m. LUNCHEON; Speaker Jenna Johnson, reporter, Washington Post:
“Covering President Trump”

*schedule is subject to change.

Afternoon: In ANDERSEN Room 15 (Auditorium):
1:00 – 3:30 p.m.:
Aaron Duncan, Professor, Communication Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln:
“Alternative Facts, Framing, and Fourth Estate: When is A Lie a Lie?”
Chad Lorenz, News editor, Slate:
“Opinion Journalism in the Trump Age”
Robynn Tysver, Political reporter, Omaha World-Herald:
“Fake News Isn't Meant to be Believed”
Alissa Wilkinson, reporter, VOX, and associate professor, The King’s College, NYC:
“How Can Movies Help us Make Sense of a Post-Truth World?”
Each speaker will present for 20 minutes, followed by a panel discussion hosted by Prof. Barney McCoy, CoJMC
3:30 – 3:45 p.m. Coffee BREAK
3:45 – 4:30 p.m.: Dona-Gene Barton, Graduate Chair, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Nebraska–Lincoln:
“Tuned Out or Turned Off? Political Information Overload in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election”
4:30 – 5:15 p.m.: Michael Wagner, Associate Professor, Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison:
“Deciding What’s True in a Polarized America”

*schedule is subject to change.

Access: Parking is available on the street or nearby parking garages
(The Faculty lot attached to Andersen is not open to the public.)

Speakers


Dona-Gene Barton

Dona-Gene Barton

Graduate Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Dona-Gene Barton is graduate chair and an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She is the co-editor of the book Fault Lines: Why The Republicans Lost Congress, and her research has appeared in top journals in the discipline including the American Journal of Political Science and Political Psychology. In her capacity as a researcher and teacher, she uses psychological perspectives to better understand how citizens form their political opinions particularly during election campaigns.


Nic Dawes

Nic Dawes

Deputy Executive Director, Media at Human Rights Watch, New York

Nic Dawes is Deputy Executive Director for Media at Human Rights Watch. He leads the organization’s digital, multimedia, and external communications work. He was previously chief content officer at India’s Hindustan Times, where he was responsible for a far-reaching digital transformation, and editor-in-chief at South Africa’s leading political and investigative newspaper, the Mail & Guardian. He is the recipient of Sikuvile, Mondi, Taco Kuiper and National Press Club awards. As chairperson of the South African National Editor’s Forum he has been an activist for press freedom and freedom of information in his home country, working to forestall regulatory and legislative efforts to curtail media independence.


Aaron Duncan

Aaron Duncan

Assistant Professor of Practice, Department of Communication Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Dr. Aaron Duncan Assistant Professor of Practice Department of Communication Studies, Director of Speech and Debate. His research focuses on public mythology, sporting culture, and political communication. In 2015 published his first book Gambling with the Myth of the American Dream. His writing has also appeared in popular publications including The New Republic, Business Insider, and Quartz. During his time as coach his teams have won over 100 college tournaments, won six consecutive Big 10 Conference Tournament Challenge championships, placed consistently in the top ten in the nation in both speech and debate, and won multiple individual national championships.


Jenna Johnson

Jenna Johnson

White House Reporter, The Washington Post

Jenna Johnson is a White House correspondent for The Washington Post who also writes about the political movement that swept President Trump into office. She covered Trump's campaign for more than a year, traveling to more than 170 rallies and interviewing hundreds of Trump supporters. Jenna has worked at the Post for nearly 10 years and previously covered Maryland politics and higher education. She grew up in Omaha and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. While at University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Jenna was the editor-in-chief of the Daily Nebraskan and traveled with professor Joe Starita and a team of student journalists to Sri Lanka.


Gary Kebbel

Gary Kebbel

Professor, College of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Gary Kebbel is working on mobile media projects at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. With funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, he produces national conferences to teach mobile media best practices and emerging trends. He was dean of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications for two years. Before coming to Nebraska, Kebbel was the journalism program director at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami, where he administered the Knight News Challenge, a $25 million contest to fund digital news innovations and experiments. He is a founding editor of USA TODAY.com and Newsweek.com and was news director at AOL.


Chad Lorenz

Chad Lorenz

News Editor, Slate

Chad Lorenz is the news editor of Slate magazine. A native of Omaha, Lorenz has lived in Washington, D.C., since 1999. He previously worked at the Washingtonian magazine and the Washington Post. While a student in the University of Nebraska’s College of Journalism and Mass Communication, he was Daily Nebraskan staffer and worked under such luminaries as Jeff Zeleny, Matthew Waite, and Rainbow Rowell.


Debra Mason

Debra Mason

Professor, Missouri School of Journalism

Debra L. Mason Ph.D. is among the leading scholars, trainers and entrepreneurs of religion in the news media. She brings more than 30 years of professional and scholarly experience to her position as director of the Pew-funded Center on Religion and the Professions, an interdisciplinary center at the world-renown Missouri School of Journalism. For two decades, she also directed Religion News Association, a professional association of journalists writing about religion in the mainstream media for two decades and was founding director of its nonprofit arm, Religion News Foundation. She is publisher emeritus of Religion News Service (RNS), the world’s only non-sectarian wire service exclusively covering religion.


Robin Tysver

Robin Tysver

Reporter, Omaha World-Herald

Robynn Tysver is an old-fashion beat reporter, who has covered numerous political and governmental agencies over her 30-plus years as a journalist. For the past 15 years, she has covered politics for the Omaha World-Herald, including presidential, U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races. She most recently covered the Iowa presidential caucuses, where she got a chance to meet and cover almost every presidential candidate in the field. In addition to politics, she covered the Nebraska Legislature and small-town city councils for The Associated Press, the Lincoln Journal Star and the Omaha World-Herald. She hails from North Dakota, where she started her career in small-town weekly newspapers.


Mike Wagner

Mike Wagner

Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Michael W. Wagner Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Louis A. Maier Faculty Development Fellow in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. His more than 40 academic journal articles and book chapters appear in outlets such as Journal of Communication, Annual Review of Political Science, and Journalism and Communication Monographs. The editor of Political Communication’s Forum, Wagner has earned grants from the National Science Foundation and the Carnegie-Knight Foundation. His next book (co-authored with University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Elizabeth Theiss-Morse), Political Behavior of the American Electorate, will be released in January 2018.


Alissa Wilkinson

Alissa Wilkinson

Reporter, Vox.com; and Associate Professor, The King’s College, NYC

Alissa Wilkinson is a staff writer at Vox.com, covering film, media, and culture. She is also an associate professor of English and humanities at The King's College in New York City. Alissa's work has appeared at Rolling Stone, Vulture, The Washington Post, RogerEbert.com, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Books & Culture, and many other publications. She is co-author, with Robert Joustra, of How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith, and Politics at the End of the World (Eerdmans).