The accelerating shift of newspaper content from dead trees to the web will be topic A of a special program this Thursday evening (Nov. 30) at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft.

The event, titled “The Changing World of American Journalism,” will bring together an academic and four working journalists, each of whom will give a short presentation on newsgathering and publishing in the digital age. (See shameless plug, below.)

The event is free and open to the public. The audience will be encouraged to ask questions and raise concerns.

Particular emphasis, says event organizer Art Kamin, will be on what web-based journalism might mean to society, and yea, even democracy.

“Newspapers help make democracy work, but digital-age changes in newspapers are here and more are coming,” says Kamin. “This program will examine what the future may hold for journalism and how it will affect our lives—especially in New Jersey and in Monmouth County, where newspapers play a critical role serving as a government watchdog.”

Scheduled to participate are: John V. Pavlik, chairman of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University; Bill Zapcic, online editor and columnist at the Home News Tribune, based in East Brunswick, and Roya Rafei, assistant metro editor at the Asbury Park Press.

Shameless plug: the couple who bring you redbankgreen—journalist John T. Ward and graphic artist Trish Russoniello—will also be on the panel, representing the hyperlocal, web-only perspective.

redbankgreen is an independent publication launched June 1. Both the Home News Tribune and the Press are owned by Gannett Co., a major national chain that’s gearing up to make the Internet its primary delivery channel.

Kamin, of Fair Haven, will guide the discussion. A frequent contributor of op-ed pieces to New Jersey newspapers, he was the president and editor of the Red Bank Register, and later the Daily and Sunday Register, based in Shrewsbury, all now defunct.

NBC Nightly News anchor (and Brookdale graduate alum) Brian Williams will also weigh in, via a pre-recorded message to the gathering.

The two-hour event begins at 7p in the Warner Student Life Center, Navesink 1. Here’s a campus map; look for “SLC” (Student Life Center) in the upper left corner. For parking, it looks like lot 7 is the best bet, followed by lot 6.

For more information, call (732) 224-2967.

Email this story