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The Third Annual MEDIA LITERACY: Overseas Conversations Series June 5 to 10, 2006

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

New York, NY—The third annual MEDIA LITERACY: Overseas Conversations Series, organized by European Observatory of Children's Television (OETI), Duende Pictures, and The Museum of Television & Radio, will take place from June 5 to 10, 2006. Promoting intercultural communication about the role of media and media literacy in the lives of children and youth, the conference will offer programs for both the industry and general public, all free of charge. Support for the conference is provided by ICIC-Generalitat of Catalonia; Aldeas Infantiles, Spain; Fundación Rafael del Pino, Madrid; TV3-Catalunya Televisió; and the Consulate General of Spain inNew York.

The conference will provide an open forum for issues to be discussed, with topics ranging from cross-cultural collaboration to the implementation of media literacy as an educational resource both in and outside of the classroom to the analysis of the ways children and teenagers use mass media and what effect it has on their development.  In addition, the organizers will offer screenings of youth-produced media from around the world. 

The schedule for MEDIA LITERACY: Overseas Conversations Series follows. 

  • All events are held at The Museum of Television & Radio (25 West 52 Street, Manhattan) unless otherwise noted.
  • All programs are free, on a first-come, first-served basis (reservations accepted via e-mail: duende@duendepictures.com). Group reservations for screenings can be made by calling (212) 621-6663 or (212) 621-6664. 

Monday, June 5

Opening event

6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

*Location: National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park South

Panel & Presentation: New Literacies in a Digital World

This event will examine how the new digital communication technologies are changing the concept of "literacy" in educational systems around the world.

Presenters:

Jordi Torrent (Founder, Duende Pictures)

Valenti Gomez (Founder, OETI)

Panelists:

Kathleen Tyner (University Texas, Austin)

Roberto Aparici (University UNED, Spain)

Tuesday, June 6

6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Keynote speaker: Stuart Ewen                                

Mr. Ewen is a distinguished professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies at Hunter College, and in the Ph.D. Programs in History, Sociology and American Studies at The CUNY Graduate Center (City University of New York).  He is the author of a number of influential books, including PR! A Social History of Spin and All Consuming Images: The Politics of Style in Contemporary Culture. The latter provided the foundation for Bill Moyers's four-part, Peabody, Emmy, and National Education Association Award-winning PBS series The Public Mind.  PR! was a finalist for The Financial Times Global Business Book Award in 1997, and provided the basis for a four-part BBC television series, The Century of the Self. 

Wednesday, June 7

  • 10:30 a.m. to noon     

Screenings for elementary and middle school children

2005 OETI's UNICEF prize-winning videos from the Netherlands, Brazil, and Spain.

  • 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Screenings for teenagers

Videos from MultiRio (Brazil) and Media Manual (Austria).

  • 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

Panel: Videogames are Education Too

Videogames are an intimate part of our culture and social environment. This panel will examine whether educators should disregard them as pure entertainment, or if strategies should be developed to integrate videogames into the educational system.

Moderator:

Eva Pujadas (Professor and Associate Director of the Department of Journalism and Communications of the University Pompeu Fabra,Barcelona)

Panelists:

Douglas Rushkoff (Media Analyst; Documentary Writer; Author, Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside OutMedia Virus)

Henry Jenkins (Director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program)

James Paul Gee (University of Wisconsin) 

Thursday, June 8

  • 10:30 a.m. to noon

Screenings for elementary and middle school children

Videos produced by students of New York City public schools, including regions 2, 5, and 10.

  • 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Screenings for teenagers

American youth-produced videos from organizations such as: Just Think, MNN-Youth Channel, Ghetto Film, Educational Video Center, Downtown Community Television, Global Action Project

  • 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

Panel: Early Childhood and Television

Recent pediatric studies indicate that children age two and younger should not be engaged in television viewing. This panel will look at what these studies have found, and how they affect early childhood television programming.

Moderator:

Faith Rogow (Cofounder, Alliance for a Media Literate America)

Panelists:

Rosemarie Truglio (V.P. of Education and Research, Sesame Workshop)

Marie Evans Schmidt (Center on Media and Child Health, Harvard Medical School)

Regina de Assis (President of MULTIRIO; Chairperson of the 4th World Summit on Media for Children, Rio, 2004; former Secretary of Education to the City of Rio, Brazil) 

Friday, June  9

  • 10:30 a.m. to noon

Screenings for elementary and middle school children

Youth productions from Spain.

  • 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Screenings for teenagers

Productions from George Lucas Educational Foundation and OneWorld TV Project.

  • 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

Panel: Old Media in New Platforms: Radio

This panel will cover various questions including, what are American teenagers listening to on the radio, how are they listening, and how is radio developing into a new medium in the age of podcasting?

Moderator:

Eevin Hartsough (The Museum Television & Radio)

Panelists:

Monique Fortune (Fordham University)

Johanna Franzel (Coordinator, Generation PRX, Public Radio Exchange)

Kaari Pitkin (Producer, Radio Rookies, NPR) 

Saturday 10               

Closing event

4:00 to 7:00 p.m.

*Location: Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West 22nd Street

Screening of the documentary Body and Mind: Prometheus and Durga's Future

Experts in semiotics, psychology, the arts, Gestalt therapy, music, and theater share their experiences and comment on understanding the importance of the senses, subconscious emotions, and reason as communication elements in the expressive, experiential "whole" that makes up the human being.

Presented by Francesc Llobet (director) and Valenti Gomez (European Observatory of Children's Television) 

Tickets: These events are free. Seats available on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations accepted via e-mail:duende@duendepictures.com)

Group reservations for screenings only can be made by calling (212) 621-6663 or (212) 621-6664.

Additional information can be found at www.chelseaartmuseum.org/events/2006/medialiteracy.

Organized by European Observatory of Children's Television, Duende Pictures, and The Museum of Television & Radio, in collaboration with The National Arts Club and The Chelsea Arts Museum.

With the support of ICIC-Generalitat of Catalonia; Aldeas Infantiles, Spain; Fundación Rafael del Pino, Madrid; TV3-Catalunya Televisió; and the Consulate General of Spain in New York. 

Program coordinator: Randy Simon; Project directors: Jordi Torrent and Valenti Gomez i Oliver. 

The Museum of Television & Radio, with locations in New York and Los Angeles, was founded by William S. Paley to collect and preserve television and radio programs and advertisements and to make them available to the public. Since opening in 1976, the Museum has organized exhibitions, screening and listening series, seminars, and education classes to showcase its preeminent collection of over 100,000 television and radio programs and advertisements. Programs in the Museum's collection are selected for their artistic, cultural, and historic significance.