Manship School of Mass Communication ׀ Louisiana State University 
225.578-2223 ׀ adrienn@lsu.edu
 

The John Breaux Symposium

The annual John Breaux Symposium seeks to elevate our national level of public discourse.  Every year we bring in political and civic leaders, executives, journalists and scholars to discuss a national issue of importance.  The central question is:  How well is the public being informed, and what must be done to increase citizen awareness and constructive debate?

Hard copies of the following symposia are available, please call for details at (225) 578-7312. 

 Previous Breaux Symposia

Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Holliday Forum, 8 a.m.
2008 Breaux Symposium: New Models for News

The 2008 Breaux Symposium, “New Models for News,” expanded on the findings of the 2004 symposium, “News in the Public Interest.”  The April 25-26 symposium broadened the analysis of original news-gathering and publication to include nonprofit and for profit economic models not just inside the U.S., but internationally, in particular Europe.  Organized by Chuck Lewis, founder of the Center for Public Integrity and president of the Fund for Independence in Journalism and John Maxwell Hamilton, dean of the Manship School, the symposium featured essays and discussion from a distinguished panel of scholars and professionals.  Click here to view a .pdf of the participants' bios.

Thursday, November 8th, 2007
Toolkit for News Consumers:  A Conversation about the Role of the Media in Ensuring an Informed and Engaged Public for the 2008 Presidential Campaign.  Click here to find out more.

2005 :: We Hold These Truths? How New Technology is Changing Foreign Affairs Reporting
The job of a foreign correspondent, as Richard DiBenedetto of USA Today put it, is "to go someplace where the people at home can't go and [truthfully] tell them what happened when you got there." This Breaux Symposium explored ways that new media technology--from satellites and cell phones to digital convergence and the Internet--has changed the creation of foreign news, its delivery, the amount and style of coverage, the accuracy and reliability of information from abroad, public opinion about foreign affairs, and the economics of the media industry.  Panelists included: David D. Perlmutter & John M. Hamilton, LSU; Lucila Vargas & Lisa Paulin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Steve Livingston, George Washington University; Kaye Trammell & Margaret Defleur, LSU; John Yemma, Boston Globe, Emily Erickson, LSU; Phillip Seib, Marquette University; Shahira Fahmy, Southern Illinois University and Richard Moose, U.S. State Department. The symposium resulted in a book, From Pigeons to Portals:  Foreign Reporting and the Challenge of New Technology.  It is the sixth volume in the media and public affairs book series, a collaborative project of the Reilly Center and LSU Press.

2004 :: News in the Public Interest:  A Free and Subsidized Press 
The fifth annual Breaux Symposium, entitled “News in the Public Interest: A Free and Subsidized Press,” focused on a clear though complex question – how can you increase the production, dissemination, and consumption of hard news? The conference was built on the premise that while media markets deliver diverse, instantaneous, and voluminous amounts of information, there are predictable flaws in media coverage. The lack of expressed demand and high costs of production increasingly mean hard news is eclipsed in print and broadcast markets. The emphasis on entertainment and journalists as celebrities crowds out discussion of public affairs.  The 2004 symposium focused on a discussion of the types of efforts needed to raise the quality and quantity of hard news, given the economics of news markets.  Topics of discussion included: the potential costs of interventions, their likelihood of success, and the indicators one would use to measure progress in promoting public discussion, comprehension, and participation in politics.

The six session topics were non-profit ownership, foundation subsidies for information, individual/family ownership, partisan information, government subsidies and international modes.  

Moderators for the 2004 symposium were John Maxwell Hamilton, Dean of the Manship School of Communication at LSU, and James T. Hamilton, Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Duke University.  Panelists included: Mr. Frank Blethen, Publisher, The Seattle Times Company, Professor Everette Dennis, Fordham University, Dr. Karen Dunlap, President, Poynter Institute, Mr. Lawrence Grossman, Co-Chairman, Digital Promise Project, Professor Frances Hill, University of Miami School of Law, Mr. Walter Hussman, Publisher, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Professor Marion Just, Wellesley College, Mr. Donald Kimelman, Director, Venture Fund, Pew Charitable Trusts, Ms. Maria Martin, Founding Producer, Latino USA and Gracias Vidas Productions and Mr. Bob Mong, President and Editor, The Dallas Morning News.

2003 :: Freeing the Presses
Organized by Dr. Timothy Cook, The Manship School of Mass Communication’s Reilly Chair in Political Communication, the 2003 Breaux Symposium explored the first amendment from three areas:  law and history, institutional autonomy of the press, and the economic and technological situations of the news media.  The symposium included a presentation of academic papers written specifically on the three areas: Law and History, Institutional Autonomy of the Press and  Economic and Technological Situations of the New Media. The session included prepared comments from responders and questions from audience members.  Panelists included: Charles Clark, professor emeritus of history at the University of New Hampshire, Frederick Schauer, Academic Dean and Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Craig Freeman, assistant professor at the Manship School of Mass Communication, Michael Schudson, professor of communication at the University of California, San Diego, Regina Lawrence, associate professor of public policy at Portland State University, Jack Weiss, partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Diana Owen, associate professor of culture and communication at Georgetown University, Lance Bennett, Ruddick C. Lawrence Professor of Communications and professor of political science at the University of Washington, Ralph Izard, associate dean for graduate studies and research in the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University and Emily Erickson, assistant professor at the Manship School of Mass Communication. 
 

2002 :: Parties, PACs and Persuasion: New Ways of Connecting with Voters
This symposium included 12 panelists who participated in a round table discussion.  Questions the panel addressed concerned the role of advocacy groups in today's campaigns, the role of the media in multi-dimensional campaigns and the future of the parties in political campaigns. Panelists included: United States Senator John Breaux, Michael Baroody, executive vice president for the National Association of Manufacturers, Donna Brazile, former campaign manager for Al Gore's presidential bid and senior fellow at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland, Walt Buchholtz, government relations and issues advisor for the ExxonMobil Corporation, Ceci Connolly, national staff writer for the Washington Post, Bob Gogerty, president, Gogerty Stark Marriott, Charles Kahn,  president of the Federation of American Hospitals, Burdett Loomis, political science professor at the University of Kansas, Susanne Martinez, vice president for public policy of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Steve Rosenthal, political director of the AFL-CIO, and Greg Wetstone, director of advocacy programs at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

2001 :: Voting Alone
The 2001 symposium explored the disconnect among voters, the amount of information available from the media, how voters are making decisions and the impact of the historic 2000 presidential elections on future interactions among the media, candidates and the electorate. Panelists included: Curtis Gans, the vice president and founding director of the Committee for the Study of the American Electorate, Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, Jack Germond, political analyst for CNN’s Inside Politics, Ben White, journalist for the Washington Post, and Ann Lewis, Public Policy Fellow at The Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania.

2000 :: The Press at the Turn of the Century
The inaugural Breaux Symposium, “The Press at the Turn of the Century,” was held in 2000.  It investigated the Press’s decline in credibility with the American public and how journalists could restore confidence in a profession badly tarnished by excess and competition.  Panelists included: David Broder of the Washington Post, CNN News Group chairman and CEO, Walter Issacson, and Marvin Kalb, former journalist and the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy.