Media
Chad Johnston is the director of Chapel Hill's grassroots public access station The People's Channel. Not many people truly know the scope of the contributions he has made toward democratizing media both in Orange County and in Orange County. Sadly he's leaving us to run a station in a bigger community. The Independent Weekly has a wonderful cover story about him this week, and the public is invited to a potluck to say farewell to Chad tonight at the TPC studio on Elliot Road. If you can't attend in person, you can watch it live on TV!
I highly recommend reading the Indy article which gives a sense of how Chad has gone to bat to protect community media at the state level, as well as the thankless work of building and sustaining capacity for grassroots voices to be heard both in Orange and Durham Counties.
I've been a huge fan of Lessig's work for some time, and I can tell you from experience that he's a really great public speaker. You'll come away smarter after listening to him.
On March 4, the Center for Media Law and Policy will host a public address by Professor Lawrence Lessig, the
Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School,
and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard
University. Prior to rejoining the Harvard faculty, Prof. Lessig taught
at Stanford Law School, where he founded the school’s Center for
Internet and Society, and at the University of Chicago.
The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will tackle one of
the most challenging problems we face: corruption in politics. How have
good people, with good intentions, allowed our democracy to be co-opted
by outside interests, weakening our institutions and especially public
trust in those institutions? What role has the media played in this
weakening and what should be its role going forward?
Please join us on March 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the UNC Law School when
Prof. Lessig will discuss how we can root out corruption in our politics
and restore faith in the Fourth Estate’s role as a watchdog of
government.
Date:
Monday, March 4, 2013 - 6:30pm to 8:00pm
During the Thanksgiving weekend of 2010, Ruby and I met over coffee in downtown Carrboro to discuss a new direction for OrangePolitics. By the turn of the new year, Ruby had recruited me, Erin, Jason, and Molly to act as a group of editors who would help solicit new content, expand OP's presence on Twitter (@orangepolitics) and other social media, moderate comments when necessary, and prosecute the war on spambots and other robot visitors.
I love newspapers and news blogs. I love reporters. I used to be a reporter. I come from 150 years of men – and one grandmother, Cyrene Bakke Dear – who published local community newspapers from Jersey City to Sedalia, Mo.
In the '60s my mom and dad got a lot of late-night, threatening calls from the Klan in my hometown of Elizabeth City, NC for what my dad did through the Daily Advance. David Dear informed the community with courage. He was also an equal opportunity employer before the phrase existed and he got threats for that, too.
I miss reporters. We need reporters here in Orange County. And everywhere. But you know that.
What you may not know is that something really big just happened here, something that may grow in significance for our community for the rest of the century.
And you probably have not heard a thing about it.
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