By Elana Hoffenberg

After waking up and eating breakfast we ventured into Evanston, a city near Chicago, to hear from the Dean of the Medill School of Journalism. His name is John Lavine. The Dean spoke to us about advances in media technology that already exist but are not yet in the marketplace. Imagine a computer from a simple pen-like metal stick. From the stick comes a small image, one which is the size of a laptop screen, and the other is a keyboard that is projected onto any hard surface. It is a fully functional computer but it seems like something out of a science fiction movie. We saw other technological advances such as computers that can also be worn as accessories, or cereal boxes that can display digital news stories. He drew us in by wowing us with technology. In his talk, he covered how mass media technology is changing how we get our information. Meeting with Dean Lavine fit today as Amazon, the largest print book seller, just announced that they now sell more ebooks than print books. He spoke about how the way we read books will change as authors can include the actual song that a character may be listening to or pieces of a movie that is being described in the story. Speaking of news consumption, Dean Lavine spoke about how with the ubiquity of computers today and most news able to find a way onto the internet, we have the ability to customize our news consumption. We can pick and choose what we read and what we ignore. This poses a slight problem, since only reading what we agree with or shutting out what we don’t want to hear leads to a limited view of events and understanding of current affairs. The Dean argued that customized content will actually allow the creator of the content to slide in other stories that connect to the topic of what you are reading and, in the end, expose you to wider interests. He strongly believes in the power of technology and the power we can have wielding technology. In an age when anyone, anywhere with computer access can publish their writings, images, or audio online for anyone to access, technology empowers us to share our ideas. Taking this idea to the media means that there are now some news outlets which citizens, not professional journalists, run. After sharing all of this new technology, Dean Lavine left us with advice on how to be savvy consumers of all this media. First we need to find a source we trust, then a journalist that we trust. We also need to not fall into the “looking for the answer” trap. No one journalist or source has the answer. The goal of journalism is to provide facts. No one will provide the truth. We can only read what we can and develop our own truth. With the future of media fast approaching, we can play an active role in shaping it as we consume and even produce journalism. John Lavine, the Dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, one of the foremost journalism schools in the country, provided us with insight into our evolving world in a way no one else could.

at the Northwestern University gate

From there we walked into downtown Evanston to Giordano’s, a pizza place. Of course, since we were in the Chicago area, they served us their famous deep dish pizza. Eating this hunk of dough, cheese, and tomato sauce made it really real that we were in Chicago. We had some free time to walk around downtown Evanston discovering the area ourselves.

From lunch and free time, we went to the Art Institute of Chicago. Its collection holds many famous pieces. On the walls we saw George Seurat’s “A Sunday On La Grande Jatte – 1884”, as well as Vincent Van Gogh’s  “The Bedroom”, many Georgia O’Keefe’s and the iconic “American Gothic” by Grant Wood and “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper. Unfortunately, we would need days we didn’t have to see the entire collection.

We left the museum to go to Grant Park a couple of blocks away. Grant Park is the site where the protestors were located during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Billy told us the history of how the protestors rioted against the nomination of Hubert Humphrey and against the Vietnam War. The riots also showed the rest of America the unrest that was sweeping across the nation and helped get Richard Nixon elected. We sat on the grass where protestors stood 42 years ago and listened to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’”, written before 1968 but strangely prophetic in describing the generation gap. Forty years after the 1968 riots, on November 4, 2008, Grant Park held the crowds amassed to hear newly-elected President Barack Obama’s election night victory speech. This park holds the memories of defining moments in our country’s history. It was incredible to actually be there while we talked about what happened there. We got back on the bus and started our drive towards Cleveland.

learning about the 1968 Democratic Convention riots in Grant Park