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When you need a speaker for your community meeting, call The Batavian

By Howard B. Owens

Whether your group is a Rotary or Lions club, a historical society, a volunteer fire department or just a group of people who like to get together once in a while and talk about interesting things, you might want to know that I have a presentation available that will ensure an informative and interesting afternoon or evening meeting.

My presentation is entitled "Reinventing Journalism." I've given the same talk at the national Society of Professional Journalists convention and the New England New Media Association convention as well as other national and regional groups. I've boiled down the key points so it would be appropriate to a local community group meeting (where the time limit is often 20 minutes, rather than the hour I usually take).

Some people might think The Batavian is nothing more than a wild thought -- let's publish a Web page and make it something like a blog. As if it were that simple.

Actually, a lot more thought and experience went into it than that -- a lot of study of media history and media theory, and "Reinventing Journalism" hits some of the key points. (If you're interested in my qualifications for giving such a talk, check my LinkedIn profile.)

So my talk covers some interesting journalism history and challenges, and concludes with theory on why The Batavian is the kind of news Web site it is.

I've found that anybody with any interest in media at all finds the topic a great discussion item.

The presentation includes multimedia -- I can bring audio speakers, but I don't own an LCD projector, so your group will need to provide the projector and a suitable location.

If you're interested in booking a "Reinventing Journalism" talk and a discussion about The Batavian, call me at 260-6970.

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