Every morning I read The Week's 10 Things You Need to Know Today as a way to get informed about pressing news around the world. OR more accurately what The Week presents as the pressing news around the world (#medialiteracy). This month, there's so much I want to share with you that I've decided to introduce a new feature* entitled  7 Things I Think You'd Like to Know About NAMLE (I feel like "need" might be slightly arrogant. I am nothing without my humility:) 

1. Media Literacy and Civic Engagement in the Digital Age at Boise State University was a success! My first time to Idaho was a pleasure all around! The Idaho Media Initiative was the best partner and the community welcomed us with open arms. Shout out to Dr. Seth Ashley and Therese Woozley for their help and support. If you didn't get a chance to watch any of the livestream, you can watch it here. Thank you to our sponsor, Trend Micro!

2. NAMLE has a new Program Associate! I am super excited to introduce Nirvana Guzman, our new Program Associate. Nirvana will soon be graduating from Brooklyn College and brings with her a passion for media literacy, a knowledge of media production, phenomenol organizational skills and an amazing attitude. You can read more about her on our website staff page. I am so happy she has joined us. With that said, as we all know, life is a series of hellos and goodbyes. While we say hello to Nirvana, we now must say goodbye to the fabulous M.J. Robinson. M.J. joined us last year to help with the Chicago Conference and we just couldn't let her go! Thank you, M.J. for your time, your brilliant wit, and your endless support. 

3. The 2019 NAMLE Conference dates have been announced! The conference will be held in Washington, D.C. June 26-28, 2019.  Next year's theme is A Path Forward: Elevating Conversation, Unifying Voices.    We are excited to be partnering with the Newseum and New America. Lots more information to come!

 

4 . There's new content on our website! We have added a new JMLE Author Profile of Dr. Jayne Lammers and Nicholas Palumbo and a Student Blog Post from our very own Nirvana Guzman. 

5. NAMLE's Board Members rock!

 

Sherri Hope Culver, Past President of the Board, wrote a chapter for the new edition of  20 Questions about Youth & Media. Sherri's chapter is entitled  "How are the needs of children considered in children's media?" The book was edited by Nancy Jennings and Sharon Mazzarella and includes chapters from Renee Hobbs and Cindy Scheibe. 

The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute has awarded nine fellowships for the 2018-2019 academic year that address ways to reach underserved audiences, improve the quality and reach of video and data-driven stories, coordinate the coverage of breaking news and help high students identify reliable sources of news and information. Board Member, Kelly Whitney, is one of the fellows! Congrats, Kelly!

6. NAMLE Leadership Council members have been busy!

Emily Bailin earned an Ed.D. in Communication and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.  

Caitlin Barry has a resource to share with NAMLE members. Caitlin, and her colleague, Laura Winnick wanted their students to be able to apply media literacy skills to social media so they wrote  three lesson plans focused on analyzing Instagram images and producing counter-narratives in response. A month ago, they presented the lessons at the NYCoRE conference. 

Nastasha Casey, along with Spencer Brayton, just published a chapter entitled Media and Information Literacy in a Higher Education Environment: An Overview and Case Study in the "Handbook of Research on Media Literacy in Higher Education Environments" (Jayne Cubbage, editor, IGI Global, 2018). You can read an excerpt of the chapter here. 

Theresa Redmond has been invited to serve as guest faculty in the new Higher Education track at the annual Summer Institute in Digital Literacy at the University of Rhode Island this July. 

Alexis Romero will be attending Univeristy of North Carolina - Chapel Hill to be part of the Media and Journalism PhD program starting fall 2018.  

7. Lisbon, Portugal is quite a town. There are peacocks. And trams. And more seafood than any person can eat (I tried).I had the chance to visit because of the International Media Literacy Research Symposium. Kudos to Belinha De Abreu and Vitor Tome for organizing a wonderful, informative, and community building event. 

I leave you with a quote by Dr. Seth Ashley from the event earlier this month in Boise. 

If we make people more media literate, we have good evidence that citizens are more engaged, especially young people in terms of political activity and self advocacy. 

Keep teaching! Keep engaging!

Michelle Ciulla Lipkin Executive Director  [email protected] @ciullalipkin @medialiteracyed

Belinha and me post event.

 

*Might be the only time I use this feature so enjoy!

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