Journalists and experts in the cultural influences shaping religion and media in Quebec will be featured in a panel discussion and breakfast during the annual convention of the Association of Journalism and Mass Communication in Canada.
Sponsored by the Religion and Media Interest Group, the panel discussion will be 8-10 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 8, at a restaurant near the convention hotel. (The restaurant location will be announced later.) The breakfast will be a pay-your-own-way event. It is designed to give RMIG members the opportunities to explore current issues in religion and media in Montreal and Quebec.
Confirmed speakers for the panel include Harvey L Shepherd, editor of the Montreal Anglican and formerly long-time reporter for the Montreal Gazette and Dr. Juliann Sivulka, professor of American Studies and Mass Communications at Waseda University in Tokyo and an expert on American media and advertising. Invited speakers include other Canadian reporters, editors, broadcasters and online journalists.
In Canada, while religion specialists do not always cover religion in quite the same way as at American media outlets, religion and media issues often dominate the news. Of major impact in recent years have been ongoing scandals related to pedophilia in Canadian churches and the proposed Charter of Values. Proposals for such a charter in the Quebec national assembly have
Included language that would prohibit public employees from wearing “overt and conspicuous” religious garb at work.
For more information about the breakfast, email Cecile Holmes at cholmes@sc.edu
Cecile S. Holmes
University of South Carolina