The University of Akron
09/27/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/27/2024 14:32
Knight Lectureship to feature live podcast interview of NPR’s Folkenflik
National Public Radio (NPR) media correspondent and author David Folkenflik will participate in a live interview with Roben Farzad for his "Full Disclosure" podcast on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall, for the 2024 John S. Knight Lecture at The University of Akron (UA), sponsored by the John S. Knight Foundation.
Farzad will interview Folkenflik about the volatility across the media industry - from the collapse of Hollywood conglomerates; to journalism's elusive search for digital business models; to the heyday of the mom-and-pop content maker on YouTube, TikTok and beyond.
The event starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 for the public and can be purchased here.
UA students and employees with a Zip Card may attend for free with their Zip Card.
Folkenflik and Farzad will also visit earlier that day with UA undergraduate students in a Principles of Social Media course taught by Associate Professor of Instruction McKenna Vietmeier in the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences' School of Communication.
Farzad's "Full Disclosure" podcast focuses on the business of culture and the culture of business around policy, media and technology, entrepreneurs and more. The Live series has recently featured Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, MSNBC President Rashida Jones, and nationally recognized chefs and music acts.
About Folkenflik and Farzad
Folkenflik joined NPR in 2004 after more than a decade at the Baltimore Sun, where he covered higher education, national politics, and the media.
Folkenflik's reports cast light on the stories of our age, the figures and values which shape journalism, and the tectonic shifts affecting the news industry. Folkenflik has reported intently on the relationship between the press, politicians and the general public.
A five-time winner of the Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism from the National Press Club, Folkenflik has received numerous other recognitions, including the Scripps Howard Award for the First Amendment, the Society of Professional Journalists' Ethics in Journalism Award and Penn State's Bart Richards award for the nation's leading media critic. Folkenflik frequently lectures at college campuses and civic organizations across the country and often appears as a media analyst for television and radio programs in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, and Ireland.
Full Disclosure Live is an omnivorous show, driven by host Farzad's curiosity and love for marrying pop culture and entertainment with learning. A regular on NPR, MSNBC, PBS NewsHour and C-SPAN, Farzad has reported everywhere from Mozambique and Botswana to the Mideast and Medellín, Colombia, to the Dominican Republic and the Niger Delta. He is the author of the true-crime bestseller "Hotel Scarface: Where Cocaine Cowboys Partied and Plotted to Control Miami." (Penguin, 2017). Formerly senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek for nine years - covering Wall Street, international finance and emerging markets - he has had bylines in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe. Born in Iran and raised in Miami, he is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School, and started his career at Goldman Sachs.
About the John S. Knight Lecture at The University of Akron
The John S. Knight Lecture at The University of Akron brings distinguished writers, politicians and other figures of national or international importance to Akron, the hometown of John S. and James L. Knight. The lectureship was established in 1991 by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to honor John S. Knight (1894-1981), an Akron newspaperman and publishing genius of the 20th century who built the small, Depression-era Akron Beacon Journal into the publishing empire known as Knight Ridder Inc.
Established in 1950, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. Sustaining informed and engaged communities in a democracy is at the heart of its philanthropic strategy for transformational impact through lasting systemic change.