1st International Worldviews Conference on Media and Higher Education

From 16-06-11 to 18-06-11. PLACE: Toronto, Canada. ORGANIZED BY: OISE/University of Toronto
Higher education affects every aspect of our lives – from the economy and the environment, to culture and communications. While the media play a critical role in shaping public understanding of this institution, little discussion has taken place about how that influence is manifested – or about how, in turn, higher education uses the media to mould how the public perceives it. But that’s about to change.
Introducing Worldviews: Media Coverage of Higher Education in the 21st Century. This innovative conference, scheduled for June 2011 in Toronto, Canada, will not only examine these issues, but explore why it’s important to do so.
The 2011 inaugural conference will consider a range of important issues, including:
-How media coverage of higher education has changed over the past two decades and where it is headed
-The impact of social media and how it is changing what is covered and how higher education is understood
-The role the media play in influencing public policy debates on public education
-How higher education engages with the media to inform public opinion
-The different realities of the developing and developed worlds
These issues will be examined in a format designed to maximize participation and discussion that will feature:
-Café discussions and salons, interviews with leading thinkers, readings and workshops, in addition to keynote addresses and panel debates
-The opportunity for audience members to become speakers and debaters
-Open programming reserved for sessions to respond to specific ideas that emerge from the conference itself
We look forward to welcoming you to Toronto in 2011.
2011 Conference Themes
Worldviews: Media Coverage of Higher Education in the 21st Century will be organized around five broad themes, each with a range of topics to be discussed and debated:
Media depictions of higher education
    Current media portrayals of higher education and possibilities for the future
    Creating dialogue and understanding between journalists and academia
    Understanding the media world and its impact on higher education coverage
    The globalization of higher education coverage: impact and trends
    Muted voices in higher education coverage
    “Hollywood goes to college”: Images of higher education in film and television
Wagging the dog: The media as the driver of higher education policy
    Responsibilities of media and higher education in creating an informed public policy debate
    Do rankings in the media drive higher education priorities? Are they helping or hurting higher education?
    The competition among international and national rankings: Which methodology is best?
    Public opinion surveys, public perceptions of higher education, and the media: Who is shaping whom?
Seizing the initiative: the role of higher education in shaping media and public perceptions
    Do public and media relations take up a disproportionate amount of attention and resources in the modern university and college? Or should even greater efforts be devoted to these activities?
    Reaching out to community and minority group media
    Science journalism: The battle between the uncertainty of science and the certainty of “news”
    Current, emerging and future media models for media coverage of research
    The research “arms war” and the battle for researchers
    Flashpoints in media coverage of research
The dawning of a new age? New media technology and new types of publications
    The impact and implications of social media for higher education
    New innovations in social media for colleges and universities and their communities
    Higher education’s contribution to new media and citizen journalism
Cross-dressing media and academy
    When the media and academia take on roles in each other’s worlds, does it lead to better understandings, or do they essentially remain two solitudes?
    Practitioners v. Academics: What’s really valued in the academy?
    Embedded journalists – the student media.