Is Broadcast Media Co-opting Citizen-Powered Media?
Where is citizen-powered media going? Is it quickly becoming just
another tool for corporations and political consultants to manipulate?
Or will it gain momentum and revolutionize the way we consume and
produce media?
Chair: Morra Aarons Mele - Political Director, Blogher.org
Morra Aarons specializes in working with women online. In between graduate school classes, she works with corporate, non-profit, and Democratic political clients to help build compelling online communications programs. She is also a blogger who writes for BlogHer.org, the largest site for women bloggers; she serves as BlogHer’s Political Director. Morra is also a columnist for TechPresident.com and a frequent media commentator.
Morra’s Internet marketing experience spans politics and the private sector. Morra was Vice President of Interactive at Edelman in Washington, DC, where she founded that firm’s online public affairs shop, widely considered the leading team in among large agencies. During the 2004 Presidential Election, Morra was the Director of Internet Marketing for the Democratic National Committee, where she oversaw online fundraising, online organizing and marketing. Previously, she worked in the same capacity at the Kerry-Edwards campaign. Before coming to Washington, Morra worked in various roles at leading online companies. She managed iVillage.com’s award-winning public affairs program in New York, then transferred to London where she managed marketing and public relations for iVillage UK. Morra has a degree in Political Science from Brown University, and is pursuing a Master’s in Public Administration. Morra is active in local politics, and represented the ANC for Ward 2B.
Lee Brenner - MySpace
Lee Brenner is the Director of IMPACT (Public Affairs) & Executive Producer of Political Programming for MySpace. The IMPACT channel is MySpace’s hub for social and civic engagement, designed to empower MySpace users to make a difference in the world and to allow politicians, non-profits, and civic organizations to connect with MySpace’s global audience. The Impact Channel houses the official MySpace pages for all of the major party Presidential candidates, as well as tools to enable voter registration, fundraising, and volunteering.
As his first Project with MySpace, Brenner spearheaded the company’s partnership with MTV and assisted in the production of the ground-breaking series of MySpace/MTV Presidential Dialogues, the most interactive political engagement forums of the 2008 election season. Held on college campuses nationwide, the Presidential Dialogue series provides a national audience with the opportunity to engage with the leading presidential candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties by posing questions online, in real-time, via MySpaceIM. In addition to the unfiltered questions posed by the students in the room, a number of questions submitted online are then asked of the participating candidate throughout the duration of the event. A revolutionary online polling tool, powered by Flektor (www.flektor.com), allows the online audience to instantaneously register its approval or disapproval of candidate responses and positions.
Prior to joining MySpace, Brenner was Senior Editorial Producer of CNN’s “Late Edition w/ Wolf Blitzer,” the network’s flagship Sunday public affairs interview program. Brenner also produced “American Morning” and “NewsNight w/ Aaron Brown” during his tenure at CNN. Brenner founded L. J. Bamboo Company (www.ljbamboo.com), a global lifestyle accessories company, which is a leading designer of luxury diaper bags, scarves, ties, and other accessories.
Brenner received a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University and completed his Masters in International and Public Affairs (MIPA) at the University of Hong Kong. Although a Chicago native, Brenner now splits his time between Washington, DC and Los Angeles.
Lila King - CNN
Lila King is a senior producer for CNN.com. Her duties include leading the site's interactive storytelling and user participation efforts.
Since coming to CNN.com in 2001, King has reported and produced several multimedia stories on a wide range of topics in international news, working to integrate new technologies into storytelling presentations. King produced many of the online interactive maps and audio slideshows that distinguished CNN's Peabody Award-winning coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. King has recently launched I-Report, CNN’s highly successful citizen journalism initiative.
Lila started her career at CNN as a webmaster, putting to use the technical skills she developed as a freelance radio producer who wanted to put her work online. She graduated from the University of Georgia with degrees in Comparative Literature and Philosophy.
Garance Franke-Ruta - National Political Online Editor, The Washington Post
Garance Franke-Ruta is the national political online editor and producer for The Washington Post, a.k.a. editor of The Trail. She has also worked at The American Prospect, The Washington City Paper, The New Republic, and National Journal magazines, and had stories, criticism, or reviews published in the preceding publications and The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, The Washington Monthly, Salon, The Utne Reader, The Guardian Online, and Legal Affairs magazines. She grew up in Mexico, New Mexico and New York City, and graduated from Harvard-Radcliffe in 1997. In 2006, she was a fellow at the Shorenstein Center at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
In addition to maintaining a personal blog, TheGarance.com, from 2006 until late 2007, Garance blogged for The American Prospect’s award-winning blog, Tapped, from 2003 to 2007, and in 2007 contributed to Iowa Independentand TPMCafe. She remains a regular guest on Bloggingheads.tv.
Mary Katharine Ham - Managing Editor and Columnist, Townhall.com
Mary Katharine Ham is an editor and blogger with a background in
both the mainstream media and conservative politics. She graduated from
the University of Georgia in 2002 with a degree in Newspaper Journalism.
She was a sports and features reporter and copy editor at a North
Carolina newspaper, where she won two North Carolina Press Association awards,
for features and sports columns before leaving the mainstream media to join The
Heritage Foundation as the editor of The Insider magazine and
InsiderOnline.org.
She joined the Townhall.com
team as a blogger and columnist in 2005, and has since created a popular political videoblog. The weekly
HamNation was honored as the Best Videoblog at the Politics Online
Conference in 2006 and Video of the Year at the Weblog Awards in 2007,
and been featured on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor and Special Report.
She
appears frequently on Fox News, CNN, PBS, and MSNBC as a political
commentator, and is part of a weekly segment on Fox News' The O'Reilly
Factor Wednesday nights called "Policing the 'Net."
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