These are just some of the questions to be discussed by a stellar group of international experts, highly placed working journalists, award winning visual communicators and noted scholars at the second annual Schuneman Symposium on Photojournalism and New Media on April 8 at Ohio University’s Baker University Center. The focus of this year’s symposium is “Convergence, Confluence or Confusion: The Impact of New Media.”

The symposium is sponsored by the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and alumni R. Smith Schuneman and Patricia W. Schuneman.

The day-long event will consist of an opening address, three panels of experts and a keynote speaker. The opening talk and panels will be held in Rooms 240-242 of Baker University Center. The final keynote will be held in the Baker Center Ballroom.

To set the stage for the day, the conference will be opened at 9 a.m. by John McManus a media critic, author, publisher, journalist and scholar. He will speak about media literacy in the digital age. He is the founder of GradeTheNews.org. He also is the author of two books, Market-Driven Journalism: Let the Citizen Beware? And Detecting Bull: How to Identify Bias and Junk Journalism in Print, Broadcast and on the Wild Web.

The afternoon keynote at 5 p.m. will be given by Ana Marie Cox, the founder of Wonkette.com. She is a journalist who covers the White House on Twitter. In January 2004, she was the cover story in the New York Times Magazine. She is known throughout the journalism world as the mistress of new media.

The day also will consist of three special topic panels.

The morning panel will focus on the impact of social media on advertising and public relations. Adam Conner, the associate manager for privacy and global public policy for Facebook will be with us. Also joining us will be Jen Nedeau who is a new media consultant, writer, and activist from New York City and Arian Smedley, an editor for The Associated Press Social Network Center.

The afternoon sessions will focus on the impact of new media on political coverage and on visual storytelling.

At 1 p.m., alumnus Phil Elliott, the youngest Associate Press White House correspondent in history, will lead a stellar panel including the dean of United States Supreme Court reporters Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog. He will be joined by Laurin Manning a new media strategist from South Carolina and Taylor West, a strategist and political commentator on Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, and Fox Business Network. They will discuss the impact of social media and new media on politics and political coverage.

At 3 p.m. internationally acclaimed photojournalist Jose Azel will share some of his experiences and talk about the impact of new visual techniques on the storytelling. Axel has been a photographer for major newspapers and magazines such as National Geographic, Smithsonian, Life, Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated and GEO Magazine. He is currently the president of Aurora and Quanta Productions. He will then be joined on a panel by Miki Johnson, liveBooks Social Media Editor and former senior editor at American Photo Magazine and Jessica Chance, international award-winning multimedia producer and communications specialist.

All sessions are open and free of charge. This symposium is possible through the generosity of the Schunemans.

The impact of the Internet and “new media” changed the face of the electoral politics and election coverage forever. It is this changing political and media landscape that will be examined, in detail, on April 9th at the first Schuneman Symposium on Photojournalism and New Media sponsored by the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism and alumni R. Smith Schuneman and Patricia W. Schuneman.

The day-long event will consist of three panels held in Baker University Center Rooms 240-242 and two major keynote addresses in Templeton-Blackburn Memorial Auditorium.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now will speak to the community at 5 p.m. in the Templeton-Blackburn Memorial Auditorium and. Steve Hildebrand, one of the masterminds behind the successful Obama campaign, will also speak there at 7 p.m. He will talk about how the Obama campaign used “new media.”

Leading off the morning will be a panel of photojournalists talking about the changing nature of how they visually capture and document campaigns. The panel will feature noted photographers from the School of Visual Communication and major news publications. That panel will be from 9-10:30 a.m.

A second panel will examine the election from the media side. It is titled New Media v. Traditional Journalism. National “new media” experts Bob Benz and Peter Shaplen will join advertising specialist Gary Moneysmith and international expert Dr. Bernhard Debatin to dissect the changing media climate.

In the afternoon (3 to 4:30 p.m.) a panel of political experts headed by professor and author Albert L May from George Washington University and alumnus and AP White House correspondent Phil Elliott will focus on Political New Media. May authored an article “Campaign 2008: It’s on UTube.” Elliott is the youngest reporter ever to be assigned to the White House by AP.

The day will be topped off by the keynote addresses by Goodman and Hildebrand.

All sessions are open and the public is cordially invited to attend.

This impressive Symposium is made possible by the generosity and dedication of the Schunemans. As the director of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism, I personally express my appreciation to them for making this possible.

For more information: http://scrippsjschool.org/symposium.php