The third National Conference for Media Reform will be held in Memphis, Tennessee, January 12-14, 2007 and follows earlier ones in St Louis, Missouri (2005) and Madison, Wisconsin (2004). Upwards of 2000 people are expected from all across the USA and abroad.

The Global Media Research Center has organized a round table discussion to be held on Tuesday, January 16th. This occasion will be an opportunity for immediate report-backs on the conference and for discussion on the issues involved.

The Lead Speaker, Professor Bob Hackett (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver), is co-author of Sustaining Democracy? Journalism and the Politics of Objectivity (1997) and Remaking Media: The Struggle to Democratize Public Communication (2006), and co-editor of Democratizing Global Media (2005). Dr Hackett will particularly address the current state of media reform activities in Canada.

Other Round Table panelists, fresh from the Media Reform conference in Memphis, include:

Professor John Hochheimer (Chair-Department of Radio-Television, SIU)
---focus on USA

Professor Lisa Brooten (Faculty-Department of Radio-Television, SIU)
---focus on media reform in SE Asia

Ms. Yu-Hui Tai (doctoral student °V CMCMA, SIU)
---focus on Taiwan

Ms. Wendy Weinhold (doctoral student °V CMCMA, SIU)
---focus on public broadcasting, USA

Professor Cinzia Padovani (Faculty-Department of Journalism, SIU)
---focus on Italy

The term "Media Reform" covers a considerable variety of public policy issues, for example: increasingly concentrated ownership of mainstream media; media and diversity; electronic surveillance and privacy; electronic spectrum issues (digital broadcasting, cell phones); obstacles to widespread use of the internet; "network neutrality"; media and internet literacy; and social justice media. All these have a major impact on citizens' capacity, here in the USA and across the planet, to have a voice in society.

This is a free event and all are welcome. For more information, please contact Laura Germann at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 618-453-6876.