On Sept. 7, the onPoverty team will be hosting our first annual conference, “The New American Poverty: Reporting the Recession’s Impact.”  Roughly 50 distinguished journalists from across the country will join us for three days on the Washington and Lee campus in Lexington, Va., where we’ll discuss the unique demands and opportunities afforded to poverty journalism in the shadow of the 2007 recession.

We’re hopeful this inaugural conference, part of the Knight Poverty Journalism Initiative, will be an important step towards the creation of a permanent professional community devoted to enhancing the presentation and interpretation of poverty in the U.S. media.  We’re thrilled to welcome some of the field’s leading voices, including keynote speaker Barbara Ehrenreich, an award-winning author whose book Nickled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America instigated wide debate over living wages, the availability of affordable housing, and other key issues for the U.S. poor.  Her talk will be open to the university and engage students and professors from a variety of disciplines.

In the days that follow, we’ll be covering a variety of topics that weigh in on the media’s coverage of the U.S. poor after the recession, such as healthcare, immigration, rural poverty, and politics.  We’ll also discuss the development of workplace skills vital to quality coverage of poverty.

While September looms ever closer, we’d like to hear from you.  As both producers and consumers of media, what points would you like to be dissected during our first annual conference?  What ideas do you want to see presented?  Leave a comment on this post or shoot us an email at www.onpoverty@gmail.com.

Thanks for your contributions, and I’ll keep you updated as “The New American Poverty: Reporting the Recession’s Impact” moves forward.

Best,
Kayla Welch
Site Editor