UNIVERSITY OF OREGON IN PORTLAND • APRIL 14-16, 2016

What is Media? (2016), the sixth annual What is . . . ? conference-experience, features a unique coalescing of media scholars, government and community officials, industry professionals, alumni, and students, as well as artists, filmmakers, grassroots community organizations, and the public. With media representing a wider and wider range of concepts, products, services, and institutions, the definition of media continues to be in a state of flux. What is media today? How is media studies defined? How have media technologies transformed media theory and practice? What are the futures of media and how are they evolving? What is Media? coincides with the UO School of Journalism and Communication’s 2016 centennial celebration!

ARTICLES • FINAL PROGRAM • VIDEO • BOOK

The CONFERENCE commenced Thursday, April 14th with the Freedom of Information Act Roundtable, followed by the Johnston Lecture featuring John Markoff (The New York Times), followed by the grand opening of the HABITATS EXHIBITION.

The event continued on Friday, April 15th with Stanford Communication Professor Fred Turner along with Sean Cubitt (Goldsmiths, Univ. of London, UK) and Sybille Krämer (Freie Univ. Berlin, Germany). The day continued with Vincent Mosco (Queen’s Univ., Canada), Lance Strate (Fordham Univ.), and Angela McRobbie (Goldsmiths, Univ. of London, UK). A roundtable honoring the 90th Anniversary of correspondences between Walter Lippmann and John Dewey featured Michael Schudson (Columbia Univ.), Carl Bybee (UO), Nathan Crick (Texas A&M Univ.), Colin Koopman (UO), Noortje Marres (Univ. Warwick, UK), and Chris Russill (Carleton Univ., Canada). The day ended with Sandra Braman (Texas A&M Univ.), Graham Murdock (Loughborough Univ., UK), and D. Fox Harrell (CSAIL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The evening commenced with a reception and EXPERIENCE at the NW Film Center in the Portland Art Museum featuring filmmaker and artist, Lynn Hershman Leeson, along with  intermedia performances by Harmonic Laboratory.

Saturday, April 16th began with a UO Presidential Welcome by Michael Schill followed by Luciano Floridi (Univ. of Oxford, UK) and Agatha Haines (Univ. of Plymouth, UK). The day continued with François Cooren (Univ. de Montréal, Canada), Stanley Deetz (Univ. of Colorado Boulder), and Noortje Marres (Warwick). Following plenaries by Joanna Zylinska (Goldsmiths, Univ. of London, UK) and Steven Jackson (Cornell Univ.), the evening concluded with a new composition, Toward Harmony by Robert Kyr (UO) composed specifically for What is Media?

What is . . . ?
Journalism (2015) • Documentary (2014) • Radio (2013) • Television (2012) • Film (2009)