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SUMMARY:Alastair Campbell: Journalism and democracy: grounds for optimism 
 in the face of the future? - Alastair Campbell
DTSTART:20131114T170000Z
DTEND:20131114T183000Z
UID:TALK48809@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:CRASSH
DESCRIPTION:This is the second of two public lectures given by Alastair Ca
 mpbell\, writer\, campaigner and former communications director to British
  Prime Minister Tony Blair\, and Humanitas Visiting Professor of Media 201
 3 at CRASSH.\n\nIn these lectures and in a subsequent symposium on 20 Nove
 mber\, Campbell will expand on and qualify his statement to the Leveson In
 quiry two years ago: ‘…though I admire many journalists and much journ
 alism… I also believe that there are serious and endemic shortcomings in
  the culture\, practices and ethics of the British media’.\n\nBut he wil
 l also defend the role of journalism as a central pillar of democracy\, an
 d explain why despite those shortcomings he is optimistic that politics an
 d media can adapt to the changes sweeping through both.\n\nIn this second 
 lecture\, ‘Journalism and democracy: grounds for optimism in the face of
  the future?”\, Campbell will address the challenges facing journalists\
 , and the potential for positive changes in how journalism is conducted an
 d regulated. He will attack what he calls the 'Big Lies' told by the press
  to fight the planned Royal Charter\, urge politicians to hold firm\, and 
 insist the public want and will benefit from regulatory and cultural chang
 e in the UK media - as will journalism.\n\nHe will also give his views on 
 social media\, Wikileaks and the Edward Snowden revelations\, and emphasis
 e that technological and political trends are pointing towards rather than
  away from more openness and transparency. And he will argue that for poli
 ticians\, the response to a more chaotic and noisy media landscape should 
 be to be more strategic and less tactical\, not the other way round.\n\nFu
 rther details: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/25151
LOCATION:Lady Mitchell Hall\, Sidgwick Avenue\, Cambridge
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