Spring Symposium on Journalism and Democracy

March 15 - 17, 2023 Gasson 100 |

For those who are not able to attend in person, we will be sessions 1-5. Keynote livestreams are only available for those who register. A link to access will be emailed prior to the event. is required.

Spring Symposium

Many today consider both journalism and democracy to be in crisis. The challenges facing each also seem to be tightly interconnected. The rise of social media, the explosion of misinformation, the hardening of polarization, the loss of public faith in government and mainstream media–all of these factors appear to be driving our traditional institutions of journalism and democracy toward the brink of collapse, in the U.S. and around the world. But how exactly are the fates of contemporary journalism, and contemporary democracy, bound together? Which of the challenges so familiar to us from the headlines are truly “new,” and which are the result of more long-term trends in technology, political economy, and culture? And what new initiatives and promising developments hold the potential to both revitalize the field of journalism, and prevent our democracies from further degenerating?

Culminating a year-long exploration of these questions, the Clough Center will hold a Symposium on “Journalism and Democracy” from March 15th through March 17th. The symposium will feature several major keynote addresses and draw together leading journalists and scholars to engage them in public conversation on some of the most pressing issues facing our media institutions, our polity, and our world today. Please join us for the major event of our program year–and add your voice to the conversation.

Co-Sponsored by the Lowell Humanities Series, the Institute for Liberal Arts,the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics, the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life and the Journalism Program at Boston College


SESSION 1: JOURNALISM’S ROLE IN DEMOCRACIES

SESSION 2: TRANSFORMATIONS IN JOURNALISM

SESSION 3: IS IT THE MEDIA, OR IS DEMOCRACY?

SESSION 4: COVERING RELIGION

SESSION 5: NEW DIRECTIONS FOR JOURNALISM & DEMOCRACY

Keynote Presentations:

Wednesday, March 15, 2023 | Gasson 100 Livestream link sent prior to event

7:00 pm

Opening Keynote

"Defending Democracy? The Political Role of Journalism”

Jamelle Bouie,Columnist for the New York Timesand Chief Political Correspondent for Slate Magazine

Cosponsored with the Lowell Humanities Series

Introduced by: Jonathan Laurence

Moderator: Heather Cox Richardson


Thursday, March 16, 2023 | Gasson Hall *

8:30 am

Registration (Gasson Rotunda)

Coffee-Tea (Gasson 112)

9:00 am

Welcome Address: Honors Library (112)

Jonathan Laurence, Clough Center

9:15 am

Session 1: Journalism’s Role in Democracies*

Speakers:

  • Barbie Zelizer, University of Pennsylvania
  • Jan-Werner Müller, Princeton University
  • Susan Glasser, New Yorker

Moderator: Tiziana Dearing, WBUR

10:30 am

Coffee Break

10:45 am

Session 2: Transformations in Journalism (Gasson 112)*

Speakers:

  • Mark Thompson,Former President and CEO, New York Times Co. [virtual]
  • Victor Pickard, University of Pennsylvania
  • Daniel Kreiss, UNC Chapel Hill
  • Riada Asimovic Akyol, New Lines Magazine

Moderator:Michael Serazio, Boston College

12:00 pm

Lunch (Gasson 100)

12:15 pm

Luncheon Keynote (Gasson 100)

Ron Suskind,Pulitzer-Winning Journalist and Bestselling Author

Q&A Moderated by Kimberly Atkins Stohr, Boston Globe

Livestream link will be sent prior to event

1:30 pm

Short Break - Coffee with Ron Suskind (Gasson 100)

1:45 pm

Session 3: Is It the Media, or is Democracy? (Gasson 112)*

Speakers:

  • Pippa Norris, Harvard University [virtual]
  • Zac Gershberg, Idaho State University
  • Mustafa Akyol, Cato Institute
  • Heather Hendershot, MIT

Moderator: Jonathan Laurence

3:15 pm

Coffee Break

3:30 - 4:45 pm

Afternoon Keynote (Gasson 100)

Charlayne Hunter-Gault,Best-Selling Author & Award-Winning Journalist
in conversation with Angela Ards, Boston College

Introduced by: Charlie Sennott, Boston College

Livestream link will be sent prior to event


Friday, March 17, 2023 | Gasson Hall *

8:45 am

Coffee & Tea (Gasson 112)

9:00 am

Session 4: Covering Religion (Gasson 112)*

Speakers:

  • Erik Bleich, Middlebury College
  • Sam Sawyer, America Magazine
  • Mark Oppenheimer
  • Kathryn Jean Lopez, National Review

Moderator: Nicholas Hayes-Mota, Boston College

10:20 am

Short Break

10:30 am

Session 5: New Directions for Journalism & Democracy (Gasson 112)*

Speakers:

  • Joshua Darr,Louisiana State University
  • Caleb Gayle, Northeastern Unviersity
  • Joan Donovan, Harvard University
  • Charlie Sennott, Boston College

Moderator: Carol Ferrara,Boston College

12:00 pm

Lunch (Gasson 100)

12:15 pm

Luncheon Keynote (Gasson 100)

Maria Hinojosa,Emmy-Winning and Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist

Moderator: Carlo Rotella,Boston College

Livestream link will be sent prior to event

1:25 pm

Farewell Address

Jonathan Laurence
1:30 pm

End of Symposium

Keynote Speakers

Jamelle Bouie

Jamelle Bouie

Jamelle Bouie, a columnist for the New York Times and former political analyst for CBS News, covers U.S. politics, public policy, elections, and race.

Jamelle’s political instincts provide audiences with unique insight on the past, present, and future of our national politics, policy, and the state of race relations. As he did while writing for Slate and the Daily Beast, Jamelle shares eye-opening perspectives on issues concerning the issues at play in America today.

Jamelle Bouie appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation. His writings have appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, TIME, and The New Yorker. Jamelle uses his unique perspective to take audiences to the front lines of the nation’s most significant news events, from civil unrest to political partisanship. He has emerged as a leading voice on the national scene, being named to Forbes “30 Under 30 in Media” in 2015.Jamelle stimulates provocative, much-needed thinking on critical national affairs issues. He helps audiences analyze current events through the lens of human history and in the age of social media. He deftly illustrates how the past reveals itself in the present, and how policy-makers, citizen activists and cultural influencers can seize the power of information to make a difference.


Ron Suskind

Ron Suskind

Ron Suskind is a Pulitzer-winning journalist, bestselling author, and producer of award-winning documentaries and feature films, and the founder of BongoMedia.Ron’s latest bestseller,Life, Animated(2014), chronicles his family’s twenty-year journey raising and connecting to their autistic son. The Suskinds are also the subject of an award-winningdocumentary featureof the same name (2016). Their story has driven activism and research about the compensatory strengths of those with autism and others who are “differently-abled” due to distinctive neurology or sociocultural backgrounds. Ron’s company,The Affinity Project, is leading efforts to build a next generation of augmentative technologies to lift and support these communities.Ron often appears on network television and has been a contributor for The New York Times Magazine and Esquire. Ron was the Wall Street Journal’s senior national affairs reporter from 1993 until his departure in 2000, and won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. He currently lives in Cambridge, MA, with his wife, Cornelia Kennedy Suskind, and lectures about narrative and justice at Harvard Law School.


Maria Hinojosa

Maria Hinojosa

Maria Hinojosa dreamt of a space where she could create independent, multimedia journalism that exploresand gives a critical voice to the diverse American experience. She made that dream a reality in 2010 whenshe created Futuro Media, an independent, nonprofit newsroom based in Harlem, NYC with the mission to create multimedia content from a POC perspective. Futuro does this in the service of empowering people to navigate the complexities of an increasingly diverse and connected world. Hinojasa’s Pulitzer Prize winning podcast, “Suave”, focuses on herrelationship with David Luis “Suave” Gonzalez, in addition to telling the story of thousands of other people sentenced to die in prison for a crime they committed as a minor.“Suave” is gut-wrenching, deeply personal, and full of heart. Hinojosa’s nearly 30-year career as an award-winning journalist includes reporting for PBS, CBS, WN51, CNN,NPR, and anchoring the Emmy Award winning talk show from WGBH Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One. She is the author of two books and has won dozens of awards, including: four Emmys, the John Chancellor Award, the Studs Terkel Community Media Award, twoRobert F. Kennedy Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club,and the Ruben Salazar Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAHJ.


Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Charlayne Hunter-Gault is an award-winning journalist with more than 50 years in the industry, extending herwork at various times to all media. She is the author of four books, including an eBook called Corrective Rape, which details the devastating way some men in South Africa attempt to “correct” gay women’s sexual identity; To the Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement, is a historical narrative for young readers grade nine and up, published by The New York Timesand Roaring Brook Press. Her other two books are New News Out of Africa: Uncovering the African Renaissance, Oxford University Press and In My Place, a memoir of the Civil Rights Movement, fashioned around her experiences as the first black woman to attend the University of Georgia, in 1961, now a Vintage Press paperback. Her latest book, My People, a collection of her reporting and writing throughout her career, will be published by Harper Collins in late 2022.

Campus Map and Parking

Parking is available at the nearby Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue Garages.

Boston College is also accessible via public transportation (MBTA B Line - Boston College).

Directions, Maps, and Parking

Visitor Parking Information

Boston College strongly encourages conference participants to receive the COVID-19 vaccination before attending events on campus.