The Life of Meaning - Finding and Reporting It in a World of Crisis [Print This Page]
- Time: 2:00-3:15 p.m.
- Date: Thursday, Sept. 11
- Place: 200-A Reynolds Journalism Institute
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How well do we as journalists report stories about things that are "not seen" yet drive people's actions, shape their thoughts and give them hope? These things - often related to faith - are shared by leaders and citizens, heroes and villains, loved ones and strangers. This conversation brings veteran journalists together to share their experiences covering the tiny and monumental moments that give meaning to human life. Whether tragedies or inspirations, advances in audio, video and new media give journalists new ways to tell these stories - and to capture and explore the meaningful aspects of life that are personal, political and global. The topic is particularly pertinent as journalism faces a new media future in which these stories could easily be lost.
This session is co-sponsored by the MU Center on Religion & the Professions and the Religion Newswriters Association.
Discussion Leaders
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Bob Abernethy
Executive Editor and Host
Religion & Ethics Newsweekly on PBS
http://www.pbs.org/religion/
Bob Abernethy is executive editor and host of "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly," a half-hour newsmagazine airing on PBS. A former NBC News correspondent, Abernethy created the program in 1997 to address a lack of discussion in the national media about issues of faith. The show has won numerous awards for its coverage of religions, spirituality and profound moral issues. The program airs on more than 240 public stations nationwide to a weekly audience of 570,000 viewers. Abernethy is co-editor of The Life of Meaning: Reflections on Faith, Doubt, and Repairing the World, a collection of edited excerpts from the show published in 2007. The book features observations from an eclectic group of the show's interview subjects, such as Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama, Anne Lamott, Madeleine L'Engle, Martin Marty, Studs Terkel, Thich Nhat Hanh, Marianne Williamson and Desmond Tutu. Before launching the PBS series, Abernethy was an NBC correspondent for more than 40 years, reporting from Washington, Los Angeles, London and Moscow. He took a one-year leave from NBC in 1984 to study theology and social ethics at Yale Divinity School. Abernethy received the "Distinction in Ministry" award from the Alumni Association of Yale Divinity School in 2003.
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Patricia Rice
Contributor
St. Louis Beacon
Patricia Rice was the religion editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for more than a decade of her 36-year tenure at the newspaper, where she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Over the years, Rice covered music and the arts, poverty, the fledgling environmental movement, regional history and politics. In 1984, she was first nationally to break the news that Democratic candidate Walter Mondale would pick Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. The historic decision was considered so incredulous that no outlet picked up her Page One Sunday story for five days. It was the values and faith of the literary, arts and community leaders that she wrote about in her Sunday profiles that led Rice to report on religion. From 1994 to 2004 she served as the Post-Dispatch's religion editor covering breaking news and developing, editing and writing a six-page religion section. Rice is now a contributor on religion issues and the arts to the St. Louis Beacon, a four-month old, exclusively online news outlet founded by other former Post-Dispatch staffers. She has written four books, freelances widely and is a member of the Religion Newswriters Association.
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Bill Tammeus
Editorial Page Columnist
Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com/
Bill Tammeus, BJ '67, is a longtime editorial page columnist for The Kansas City Star, which he joined in 1970. Tammeus wrote a daily column for about 25 years - ranging from humor to serious issues - as well as editorials about religious affairs. Since 2004, his column has appeared in the Star's Saturday Faith section. Though he retired in 2006, Tammeus, a past president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, continues to write the Star's weekly Faith section column on a freelance basis. He also writes a daily blog, "Faith Matters," about religious matters that he lacks space to cover in the newspaper. In 2002, University of Missouri Press published Tammeus' first book, A Gift of Meaning, a collection of his columns exploring meaning among the events he covered and experienced in his career and life. He is working with a Kansas City rabbi on a book about Jews in Poland who survived the Holocaust with help from non-Jews. Tammeus also has done freelance reporting for numerous publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
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About the Futures Forum
Top journalists, advertisers and thought leaders will lead numerous interactive sessions during the Sept. 11 Futures Forum, a day of cutting-edge discussions about the next century of journalism. Ethics, convergence and politics are just a few of the many hot topics that will be explored in this diverse program dedicated to challenging industry thinking and visualizing possibilities for the future. Sessions will be 75 minutes long and held concurrently with others on the schedule. Full schedules will be available during on-site check in during the Sept. 10-12 celebration.
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