Working Journalists seminar includes panel

Whether news still matters in community affairs will be discussed during this semester’s Working Journalists Seminar, sponsored by the Department of Journalism at UW-River Falls.

The event will feature a panel discussion, “The Role of News in the Community,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, in the University Center ballroom on the UWRF campus. The program coincides with National News Engagement Day, an event being sponsored for the first time by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

Participants in the panel discussion will include Alan Burchill, the mayor of Hudson; Neil Kraus, professor and chair of political science at UWRF; Rich Kremer, reporter and host of “The West Side” on Wisconsin Public Radio; and Chad Richardson, editor and publisher, Hastings (Minn.) Star Gazette.

“Despite more news platforms conveniently available 24/7 and diverse ways to engage with news, getting informed about news is no longer a national priority,” the AEJMC notes on its website devoted to National News Engagement Day, newsengagement.org.

The UWRF panel discussion will examine what this means for local politics and communities. For more information on the Department of Journalism, visit uwrf.edu/journalism.