Starting with Kenny Smith who described the role of hip-hop in today's youth culture, to David Buckingham, who challenged some of our notions about teaching media literacy, to Alan November, who left our heads spinning with the possibilities of new technology, to Carlos Cortes and Ronald Takaki, who urged us to think outside the box (or, outside the 'silo'), to Gloria Tristani, who pointed out ways to change the media, we experienced three days of exciting, thoughtful, invigorating, and at times, moving discourse around the theme of 'Giving Voice to a Diverse Nation'.
Jon Stewart made us laugh during his acceptance, via video, of one of this year's Media Literate Media awards. (Other MLM awardees were Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield of NPR's "On the Media", and Van Jones, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, in Oakland, CA.) And several of the Modern Media Makers (youth producers) brought us to tears during the closing session with the extraordinary videos they created during the conference.
AMLA also presented the Meritorious Service Award to Jim Ficklin for his expert and tireless management of the Media-L list serv. Congratulations, Jim!
If you missed this wonderful event, please browse our image gallery.
Available for download:
Keynote Speeches
Modern Media Makers student films
Conference program (PDF, 1MB)
"Voices" video (Quicktime, 9MB)