“Who Let the Blogs Out? “ Conference for Media Studies Teachers 2007

Welcome to all of you from the organising committee in Auckland. The title of the conference is supposed to pose a question and give you a challenge.

We wanted this conference to not only celebrate the familiar forms of the media but also make us consider and experience other, newer forms of the media. The challenge is to use these forms ourselves, to use them in our teaching and as part of what we teach about.

The question in the conference title asks us to consider the wider implications of these forms, who owns them, uses them and what this means for our students, teaching and society in general. The notions we have had of how media is constructed, who owns it, who can access it and what it can be used for are all challenged by these new forms of media use. They are also having a profound impact on the more traditional media forms of newspapers, magazines, television and film.

This site will give you some links and places to go that can provide you with ideas, information and new ways of teaching. It also gives you a way to create your own online learning directories and spaces for you and your students.

Committeee: Josephine Maplesden, Geoff Lealand, Sarah Fernside, Milton Henry, Sandra Chesterman, Deb Thompson. Thanks to Ian Thomas and Shannon Nelson for tech support.