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Our IN THE NOW
Participants
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influence the news. Its mission is to raise awareness and funding for student journalism scholarships and for enterprise
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under-reported topics in our region. It serves its members
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St. Louis Press Club's celebrated
online initiative, Our IN THE NOW, resumes following hiatus
More conversations with
St. Louis-area professional communicators about now happenings
May 19, 2023
Greetings, St. Louis Press Club members and followers,
We resume our celebrated series, Our IN THE NOW, following a long hiatus.
Like most institutions and individuals, we're feeling our way to that "new normal,” so deciding to resume this series, among other programming endeavors, just made great sense. There's so much to talk about and think about, with many interesting media-communications subjects to tackle. And, as a point of information, when we came up with the series title, we always thought it would foreshadow a sense of currency, something St. Louis Press Club likes to underscore for its stakeholders.
With our intentions clearly in focus, we have special thanks for St. Louis Post-Dispatch Executive Editor, Alan Achkar for agreeing
to help
us kick off our renewed series. We're grateful to Alan for taking the time recently to talk to Dale Singer, journalist and St. Louis
Press Club board member, about his profession and what life "in the business" looks and feels like these days.
We're also pleased to inform our members and followers that we have commitments from several of the subjects in the original series
to talk about what they learned in the past three years, and how they're operating in the new, almost post-pandemic world.
Then there are those original respondents who told us they want to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror, proposing some thoughtful conversation starters they believe will add to a mix of media-focused content that is forward-thinking and far-reaching.
We accept those proposals with gratitude.
Please.... if you would like to participate in the series, or know of a communications professional who would help enliven our series, please contact our executive director, Candy Low.
Thanks to all, and we'd love feedback on our series.
About Our IN THE NOW
Right about this time, three years ago, we were in lockdown mode due to the unfolding pandemic. No need to remind you of the great uncertainty and growing fear regarding just about everything at that time.
Especially apparent to the St. Louis Press Club leadership then was the noisy chatter and myriad signs across the board that life in the media business was changing as a direct consequence of COVID. Adding more complication to the unfolding disruption was the murder of George Floyd, discussions about racism and the subsequent added layer of community unrest. We were witnessing a rapidly changing community and its institutions were being affected in a broad spectrum of ways.
In the throes of such the disruption, our board unanimously agreed that capturing the sentiments of professionals in all walks of communications was the St. Louis Press Club's duty, especially for history's sake. Using the then somewhat still novel Zoom platform, we embarked on a series of recorded sit-downs featuring more than 40 communications colleagues.
"Our IN THE NOW: Looking Back. Imagining the Future," showcases communications colleagues speaking in real time about their work and life during a pandemic, protests, economic stress and a community facing frank and varied discussions about racism. As the title indicates, we got to see, hear and feel stories about a variety of media scenarios, and also learn about some of the raw sentiments about what was unfolding.
To experience that recent, vivid history, go to the original series Our IN THE NOW - 2020-2022 and check out the recordings.
Drs. Kim William Gordon and Art Silverblatt
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St. Louis Press Club's Our IN THE NOW conversation features Dr. Kim William Gordon, head of EDTECH RESERACH LABS. He holds his PhD in Educational Leadership, with a field of study focused on the use of Artificial Intelligence in Educational Technologies; and Dr. Art Silverblatt, Professor Emeritus, Webster University, and internationally-known media literacy educator. Recorded Oct. 17, 2023. Running time: 32:26.
In early 2023, St. Louis Press Club's programming committee unanimously agreed it was time to address the burgeoning and evolving technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI)—and the revolution that it is. Because of AI's complexity, as well as concerns and ever-evolving conversations about it, we anticipate this is just the first of several Press Club programs on AI and how it affects media communications.
Silverblatt and Gordon have been longtime collaborators regarding media literacy and education. In this Our IN THE NOW conversation, they comment on several of AI's societal impacts. Gordon: "What AI represents is a technological innovation that is going to impact just about every sector of our society in some manner...," He continues: "That kind of impact brings uncertainty in peoples' lives and their careers..." Referencing what they wrote in their recently co-authored paper (see link to paper, below) Silverblatt comments, "It is arguable that we're witnessing the inception of a new species." Gordon: "My view of the current state of the Chat systems is we're not even at version 1.0." Gordon and Silverblatt, actually are more positive than negative about AI impacts and predict how AI might be effective in a variety of media and education applications.
Please comment to the Press Club on how you feel about the subject, and on Gordon's and Silverblatt's considerations.
Media Literacy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence - Blogs - International Council for Media Literacy |
Richard Weiss and Sarah Fenske
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St. Louis Press Club's Our IN THE NOW with Fund Chair Richard Weiss and Executive Director Sarah Fenske, River City Journalism Fund, recorded September 6, 2023, running time: 33:34
After the unrest in Ferguson, a commission wanted to find storytellers who could write about families in the St. Louis area and the conditions that had shaped their lives. That effort has evolved into the River City Journalism Fund, which solicits story ideas, pays the writers, then offers the stories free for publication in local media outlets.
Fund Chair Richard Weiss and Executive Director Sarah Fenske told St. Louis Press Club board member Dale Singer that the year-old effort has been able to attract and pay for stories that have been placed in a variety of news sources whose staffs can’t always do the kind of in-depth coverage that the area needs.
Fenske said the impulse behind the fund is simple: “Let’s find a way that we can advance local journalism in St. Louis.”
The fund recognizes that the best ideas bubble up from the people who want to write about them, she said, and the RCJF has been able to raise money to practice journalistic alchemy: turning ideas into stories.
“I don’t want to say that money is no object,” Weiss said, “but we typically pay more than freelancers can get from publications that we’ve talked about. We really respect their talent and their time and their diligence.”
Find out more about the River City Journalism Fund in the latest installment of the Press Club's Our in the Now. |
Catina O'Leary
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St. Louis Press Club's Our IN THE NOW with Catina O'Leary, President and CEO, Health Literacy Media (HLM) recorded August 1, 2023, running time: 36:49
This being a second sitting with O'Leary, her comments make for an especially insightful NOW conversation, contextually, having first talked with this health communications leader in 2020, when COVID was a menacing virus on the rise, with many confusing health media messages to digest and explain. O'Leary believes we know and have learned so much from this time. "COVID changed the content and the context of how we thought about things for a while." About HLM, "We sit here in St. Louis but work all over the world," O'Leary says. She continues, "Individuals are at the center of health literacy." Of particular interest, here, O'Leary spends some time talking about the roles of AI in her field; and the importance of safeguarding the human element in communications.
Our IN THE NOW July 22, 2020 interview with Catina O’Leary |
Alan Achkar
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St. Louis Press Club's Our IN THE NOW with Alan Achkar, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Executive Editor recorded April 14, 2023, running time: 37:48
Recently, journalist and St. Louis Press Club board member, Dale Singer, sat down with St. Louis Post-Dispatch Executive Editor, Alan Achkar for the most recent Our IN THE NOW conversations. Highlights of the interview include Achkar’s comments on the following P-D-specific topics. The Pulitzer Platform: “The platform has always been the soul of the Post-Dispatch. We want very much to remember where we came from and what our founder’s vision was. It’s just as relevant today as it was 100-plus years ago.” Competing with digital news: “We no longer have a monopoly on people’s attention spans. Back in the day, you got your information from newspapers, TV, maybe radio and that’s it. What technology has done is really force us to fight for people’s attention spans.” Online influence: “It influences everything. It has to.” News Philosophy: “I believe in a newsroom that is tough, that is pursuing tough stories, that is aggressive, is doing meaningful work.” |
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