Long Island, NY - November 13, 2018 - The Fair Media Council, a not-for-profit organization that advocates for quality news and works to create a media-savvy society, will be holding an event later this month in order to help further that noble cause. The News Conference: Real and Powerful will be hosted on November 29 at the Garden City Hotel, and attendees who put in the time should expect to walk out well-versed in the ins-and-outs of today’s complex media and news landscape.
Real and Powerful’s main purpose, according to Fair Media Council CEO Jaci Clement, is to open dialogue with local, regional and national news media and the public. 2018 marks the second annual Real and Powerful event; previously, it was known as Connection Day, and had been in existence for over 30 years. However, Connection Day was created before cable television and the internet, and with today’s constantly shifting and evolving news and media world, Clement noted that the event itself also needed to evolve along with it…hence, the transformation into the Real and Powerful concept.
“Connection Day was a day-long event with numerous panel discussions, much like this event, but it had a more narrow focus in terms of the topics and the types of speakers we would offer,” she said. “Two years ago we re-branded it and expanded it so that it would become a day with local, regional, and national media and news representatives.”
This different approach to covering news and the media was brought about with the swift adoption of technology in our daily lives, and how that new emphasis on technology has influenced how the public consumes news, Clement said.
“This event provides answers and builds transparency into how news works for the person reading in print or online or watching it on television, so they can really understand the process,” she said. “We want people to become educated news consumers, which is really important today with all of the Fake News out there. We're trying to teach people to avoid Fake News and news that is biased and opinion-driven, and directing them to real, factual news. The world has changed very rapidly, and people need to be educated so that they can find news that is meaningful.”
The News Conference: Real and Powerful offers Fair Media Council the opportunity to expand both the topics and the speakers available to attendees, allowing the event to become far more relevant in today’s lightning-fast, tech-driven world, according to Clement.
“There will be a number of speakers and work sessions available, and depending on which they choose to participate in, certificates will be awarded to attendees in areas such as Communication Strategy , Management Strategy, and more,” she said. “This will allow representatives of organizations to return to their workplaces with documentation denoting what they have learned at the event to assist in their professional growth and development.”
Some of the major speakers at the event include Patrick Dolan, owner and CEO of Newsday and Founder of News12 Networks; Wall Street Journal's acclaimed investigative reporter John Carreyrou; and Long Island Media CEO John Colascione, among many others. In addition, there will be a number of in-depth panel discussions that should prove indispensable for anyone looking to get media-savvy in the increasingly complex news landscape of today. You can view a schedule of the day’s panels and events by clicking here.
Clement noted that the inaugural Real and Powerful event was exceedingly well-received last year, and that many of the lessons learned while putting on the fledgling event were incorporated into the planning of this year's foloow-up to make it even bigger and better than before.
“Reaction to Real and Powerful last year was overwhelmingly positive, but the only downside is that whenever you do something under a new name, it's like starting back at square one. You need to get people familiar with it and let them know why you changed it,” she said. “The reaction to it now is amazing, however, because there's an increase in people wanting us to do stuff across the country in different places. It would be great to be able to do that, but we will need the funding to be able to do it. Fair Media Council will remain on Long Island, but perhaps one day we could open up chapters in other parts of the country the way other not-for-profit organizations do. We will see.”
But in the end, Clement emphasized that the Fair Media Council serves both a vital and unique purpose in the community- to put the public on the right path to getting the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth when it comes to the news at a time when it’s become increasingly difficult to find it.
“There's no one that does what we do...there are organizations out there that say that they are watchdogs, but many of them have agendas or are biased. We're just looking to educate people about news so that they can make their own decisions,” she said. “We want to help people take matters into their own hands and to use the information out there to their benefit.”
The News Conference: Real and Powerful is slated to run on November 29 at the Garden City Hotel from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 516-224-1860, ext. 1, email info@fairmediacouncil.org or log on to www.fairmediacouncil.org.