The challenges of covering this year’s political campaigns and their impact on the public will be the subjects of an online panel discussion from 7 to 8:30 tonight.
The discussion is part of News Engagement Day, a national effort on Oct. 6 that aims to get people of all ages involved with news. The panel will feature three Chippewa Valley journalists and a political scientist whose expertise includes the electoral process.
They will discuss “Covering Political Campaigns: Do Facts Still Matter?” The Chippewa Valley Post is a lead sponsor of the program, which will be presented on a Zoom platform that is available to the public.
Panelists will be UW-Eau Claire Prof. Geoff Peterson, who chairs the Political Science department and is also on the American Indian Studies faculty; Kristen Shill, news director at WQOW-TV; Julian Emerson, a long-time Leader-Telegram reporter and now a reporter for the online publication UpNorthNews; and Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) reporter Rich Kremer. Both Kremer and Emerson are based in Eau Claire.
The discussion will be moderated by Prof. Jan Larson, chair of the UW-EC Communication and Journalism department. Audience members will be able to ask questions in the final half hour or so of the program.
WPR is the other lead sponsor for the discussion, which will explore how – and perhaps whether – journalists can help voters cut through this year’s campaign rhetoric, attack ads and other political propaganda to find factual information about candidates and issues.
A link to access the program will be available at both cvpost.org and WPR.org/western.
News Engagement Day, which began in 2014, is sponsored by the national organization of journalism and mass communication faculty members. It is an effort to spotlight the role of a free press in maintaining a democracy and to encourage the public to read, watch, like, post, tweet, text, email, listen to, discuss or comment on news.
Co-sponsors for the local discussion include WQOW-TV; the UW-EC Communication and Journalism department; and The Spectator, UW-EC’s student-run newspaper.