When: Sunday, February 25, 2018, 4:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Where: Jefferson Unitarian Church, 14350 W. 32nd Avenue
NOTE: Please ONLY RSVP if staying for Dinner, by Thursday, February 22nd, otherwise just show up. Note new Starting Time: Still the 4th Sunday, but we will be meeting at 4:30pm. The program will include a brief Humanist Moment before the program begins. So we hope to see you at 4:30pm, on Sunday, February 25th, at Jefferson Unitarian Church.
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Media, Society, and the Fight for Reality
with Dr. Erika Polson, PhD
This presentation will give an overview of today’s news media landscape in the context of understanding where we are and how we got here. Dr. Polson will provide some thoughts on how to improve one’s own media literacy and will open up discussion about what is at stake and what we might do to foster change.
The current climate around political news has thrown into question basic assumptions about the value of fact-based evidence, the power of truth versus lies, and the ability of media audiences to know—or care about—the difference. Whether it’s fake news distributed via Facebook (increasingly a main source of news for US Americans), accusations of “Fake News!” thrown at journalists by a president who cannot stomach critical coverage, or the frustrations of nonpartisan fact checkers as they see hard proof brushed aside when it is incongruent with peoples’ previously held beliefs, it seems we are living in a society where reality is increasingly considered to be a matter of opinion. Erika Polson is Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Film, and Journalism Studies at the University of Denver, where she is also director of the graduate program in International and Intercultural Communication. She is the author of Privileged Mobilities: Geo-Social Media, Professional Migration, and a New Global Middle Class (2016). Dr. Polson completed her PhD in Mass Communications at Penn State University in 2009.
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After the presentation, supper and wine will be served. A suggested donation for dinner is $10 and $3 for wine. This month’s menu is a BAKED POTATO BAR with all the fixings. To make sure we have enough food and drink, RSVP only for dinner at this JH Meetup, or email JH President Matthew Elisha at RSVP@jeffersonhumanists.org or call 303-432-8694 (For our monthly meetings, the RSVP count is for dinner only).
