Last summer in
Interview magazine, film scribe Aaron Sorkin told
New York Times media columnist David Carr: "I don't want [a citizen journalist] any more than I want a citizen doctor." Well, the fact is that citizen journalism is a reality, and its importance is growing. Bystanders, activists and enraged citizens with cellphone cameras, Twitter and blogs document the grisliest of events where professional journalists can't go. No one is better qualified to talk about this than
Andy Carvin. At the Dole Institute of Politics (2350 Petefish Drive, Lawrence, 785-864-4900), NPR's chief social-media strategist and longtime organizer of crowd-sourced news aggregation talks about how citizen reporting and social media were used to disseminate news during the Arab Spring, and how they have formed our views and coverage of the protests and violence. The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. For more information, see
doleinstitute.org.
— Ben Palosaari
