Gone Fishing...

I am afraid I won't be able to write a full post today. I have been in Aspen, Colorado for the past few days at the Aspen Institute, which is hosting a roundtable discussion among industry leaders, policy makers, and academics on the topic of media and values. It is the hallmark of the Aspen Institute that they bring together people from all sides of a topic, sit them down at a table together, and create protocols which enable them to speak with and listen to each other in a way designed to generate meaningful compromises and productive results. The past few days we have been discussing such topics as the future of the local newspaper, the value of media literacy education, and the need for a better balance between fair use and copyright. Many of the sessions have been recorded to air later on C-Span. Ground Report is also streaming the sessions live via the web -- in case anyone has time tomorrow and wants to see this process in action. They have also said that they will make an archive of the webcast which can be downloaded later. As soon as I have more details on this, I will pass it along to my readers, since I think many of the conversations I've heard here will be very useful in teaching media policy and will be of interest to the general public. I also hope to write a fuller account of this experience shortly, though it is going to be impossible to distill down the essence of such rich and varied discussions.