Center for Social Media Hosts Speaker Series: Experts Discuss Future of Foreign Correspondence

WHO: Jonathan Landay, national security correspondent for the McClatchy Company

Kevin Klose, president of National Public Radio

Keith Richburg, foreign editor for The Washington Post



WHAT: "Foreign Correspondence and the Future of Public Media" Speaker Series



WHEN: 12:45 - 2 p.m., Monday, Oct. 8 (Landay); Monday, Oct. 29 (Klose);
and Monday, Nov. 12 (Richburg)



WHERE: Room 324, Mary Graydon Center, American University

4400 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20016



DETAILS: Free and open to the public



MEDIA: Maggie Barrett, AU Media Relations, 202-885-5951

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Sept. 27, 2007) - American University's Center for Social Media, a center within the School of Communication, will host lectures by Jonathan Landay, Kevin Klose and Keith Richburg as part of the "Foreign Correspondence and the Future of Public Media" speaker series at 12:45 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 8; Monday, Oct. 29; and Monday, Nov. 12 in the university's Mary Graydon Center, Room 324.



On Oct. 8, Landay will discuss the importance of foreign correspondents reporting from abroad and how that meshes with journalism in Washington, D.C. He will also address the issue of reporting stories that conflict with those of other journalists.



Klose will discuss the future of acquisition and dissemination of information on Oct. 29. He will also address the topic of non-profit media as an alternative to for-profit media outlets.



Richburg's topic of discussion on Nov. 12 will be how and from which sources Americans will get their news and information from abroad in the future if the number of foreign correspondents continues to decline.



Landay is chief Pentagon correspondent for the McClatchy Company. He has written about foreign affairs and U.S. defense, intelligence and foreign policies for 15 years. In 2005, Landay was part of a team that won a National Headliners Award for "How the Bush Administration Went to War in Iraq." He also won a 2005 Award of Distinction from the Medill School of Journalism for "Iraqi exiles fed exaggerated tips to news media."



Klose is president of National Public Radio (NPR), America's premier non-profit news and radio programming service. A former editor and national and foreign correspondent with The Washington Post, Klose is an award-winning author and experienced in international broadcasting.



Richburg is foreign editor of The Washington Post. He joined the newspaper in 1980 and six years later, became the South Asia bureau chief. He served as the newspaper's bureau chief in Nairobi, Hong Kong and Paris before returning to Washington as foreign editor. During his tenure as a foreign correspondent, Richburg
covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, respectively. He is a recipient of the George Polk Award for foreign reporting and has received citations for excellence from the Overseas Press Club of America.



"Foreign Correspondence and the Future of Public Media" is organized by Bill Gentile, artist-in-residence at AU's School of Communication. The series is comprised of internationally-recognized foreign correspondents. Each speaker brings insight into the state and future of foreign correspondence.



The series is funded by the Ford Foundation through its Future of Public Media project.