Please come join us for the 2012 WFI Symposium, which will take place on October 25-26, 2012, at Villanova University, Garey Hall, Room 10A. The 2012 Symposium, "Truth, Fact, and Communication in Complex Information Environments," expands upon the 2011 WFI Symposium by shifting from a focus on the challenges of communicating truth within the work of individual activists to a focus on communication challenges within institutions. These events are free and open to the public. Please come join us!
The Friday evening keynote address, "Deception and Distraction in the 2012 Presidential Election," will be delivered by Kathleen Hall Jamieson. Jamieson, Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication in the Annenberg School of Communication and Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, will explore the future of the fact in public discourse. Using her extensive expertise in the area of political communication and her work to establish FactCheck.org, the widely acclaimed organization that evaluates truthfulness of political campaign discourse, Jamieson will discuss the move away from truth claims and to fact claims that are evaluated for their accuracy in various public dialogues surrounding the Presidential election. A light reception will follow the talk and Q&A.
Saturday's panel presentation and roundtable discussions, "Conflicting Conceptualizations of Truth and Fact in Recent National Campus Controversies," will focus on communication challenges within the specific context of higher education. The seven presenters represent a range of institutions and areas of specialization in Communication and higher education. The presentations and roundtable discussion will take a case study approach from the perspectives of students, faculty and administrators, addressing how and why various campus occurrences present challenges to communication within and outside the institution. Lunch will be provided for all participants.
