Hosted by the School of Journalism, this annual lecture in honour of journalist James Minifie goes Tuesday at University Theatre in Riddell Centre at the University of Regina at 7:30 p.m.
Guest-speaker this year is political columnist Chantal Hebert (pictured). The title of her talk is Missing the Forest for the Trees: A Look at the State of Political Coverage in the Social Media Era. We weren’t able to arrange an interview with Ms. Hebert, but I did speak with University of Regina political science prof instructor Tina Beaudry-Mellor in our Jan. 12 issue about the use of social media in politics in general. Here’s a link.
Also on tomorrow is a lecture at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (Gallery Building, College Ave Campus, 1-2:30 p.m., register at 585-5869). It’s actually being done by video link from the University of Saskatchewan, where Keith Walker will discuss a Commonwealth conference that was held in Namibia last July to develop strategies for greater ethical accountability in African governments and the public service.
Much work needs to be done, no doubt, but Canada’s not exactly a shining beacon in that area any more either thanks to all the controls the Harper administration has placed on the flow of public information from government departments. Here’s a link to a Post-Media article from November on the subject by Stephen Maher.