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Anchor Project - Beyond Assignment
Anchor Project - Climate Trap
Anchor Project - My Story, My Goal
Qinghua Yang
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Beyond Assignment screened this past spring at the Miami International Film Festival, the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, won the "Best Documentary Short" award at the Durango Independent Film Festival, the Newport Beach Film Festival, and now the film is currently being shown in the Manhattan Film Festival and will appear in the Central Florida Film Festival next month. In addition, the film was just awarded an “Honorable Mention†at the Metropolitan Film Festival of New York.
Jim Virga, a prolific storyteller, producer and director of Beyond Assignment, and Ed Talavera, an award-winning cinematographer, traveled with each of the photojournalists, Adriana Zehbrauskas, Gail Tibbon, and Mariella Furrer to Mexico, Israel, and South Africa, respectfully, focusing not only on their photographic work, but also what drives them through their journeys as photographers.
"We spent about a week with each, so what the viewer gets is a slice of life of these photojournalists," said Virga. "Hopefully the viewer is able to see how dedicated they are, and how much they give of themselves."
The documentary also reveals the emotional cost on journalists and their subjects when reporting on underexposed and tense issues, especially in ethically-challenging and sensitive situations.
"This is as close as it gets to doing the real thing, Virga leads us through their work, their subjects and their lives," noted Maggie Steber, an internationally-known documentary photographer and visiting lecturer at the SoC. "Through these women we learn lessons of how to see, what is important in storytelling, and fine examples of commitment to their subjects." Other SoC faculty members involved with Beyond Assignment include Dia Kontaxis, director of the Motion Picture Program, who served as the film's editor, Jeffrey Stern who worked as the film's sound editor and Electronic Media professor Sanjeev Chatterjee, who served as the executive producer.
Talavera and Virga have collaborated on several projects over the years. Talavera said he had his hands full during this shoot.
"What was challenging was trying to create images that mirrored the 'look' of the work of the photojournalist we were exploring," he explained.
But filming in three different countries provided much inspiration.
"If I had to pick a favorite, I would say Israel because it is so visually rich with all the religious imagery," Talavera said.
Virga credits much of Beyond Assignment's support to the Knight Center for International Media at the School of Communication and for providing them with such a memorable experience.
"It was a real pleasure to spend time with these top professionals and see them work," Virga said. "There were some intense moments, but that's just the nature of the business."
For more on the film and future screenings, visit http://beyondassignment.org.
Beyond Assignment screened this month at the Miami International Film Festival, the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival and won in the category of "Best Documentary Short" at the Durango Independent Film Festival. The film has been selected to screen at the Newport Beach Film Festival in California next month.
Jim Virga, a prolific storyteller, producer and director of Beyond Assignment, and Ed Talavera, an award-winning cinematographer, traveled with each of the photojournalists, Adriana Zehbrauskas, Gail Tibbon, and Mariella Furrer to Mexico, Israel, and South Africa, respectfully, focusing not only on their photographic work, but also what drives them through their journeys as photographers.
Portions of Beyond Assignment were screened to School of Communication faculty and students during a Brown Bag Session this past fall where Virga talked about the making of the film and working with the three women photographers.
"We spent about a week with each, so what the viewer gets is a slice of life of these photojournalists," said Virga. "Hopefully the viewer is able to see how dedicated they are, and how much they give of themselves."
The documentary also reveals the emotional cost on journalists and their subjects when reporting on underexposed and tense issues, especially in ethically-challenging and sensitive situations.
"This is as close as it gets to doing the real thing, Virga leads us through their work, their subjects and their lives," noted Maggie Steber, an internationally-known documentary photographer and visiting lecturer at the SoC. "Through these women we learn lessons of how to see, what is important in storytelling, and fine examples of commitment to their subjects." ??Other SoC faculty members involved with Beyond Assignment include Dia Kontaxis, director of the Motion Picture Program, who served as the film's editor, Jeffrey Stern who worked as the film's sound editor and Electronic Media professor Sanjeev Chatterjee, who served as the executive producer.
Talavera and Virga have collaborated on several projects over the years. Talavera said he had his hands full during this shoot.
"What was challenging was trying to create images that mirrored the 'look' of the work of the photojournalist we were exploring," he explained.
But filming in three different countries provided much inspiration.
"If I had to pick a favorite, I would say Israel because it is so visually rich with all the religious imagery," Talavera said.
Virga credits much of Beyond Assignment's support to the Knight Center for International Media at the School of Communication and for providing them with such a memorable experience.
"It was a real pleasure to spend time with these top professionals and see them work," Virga said. "There were some intense moments, but that's just the nature of the business."
For more on the film and future screenings, visit http://beyondassignment.org.
The University of Miami’s School of Communication was recognized with awards at the 2011 Online News Association Awards (ONA) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) annual Sigma Delta Chi Awards, both held this past weekend in Boston and New Orleans, respectively.
At ONA, UM School of Communication alumni, Paul Franz, M.A. ’10 in multimedia journalism, tied for first place in the Online Video Journalism student category for his thesis project, “Haiti’s Lost Children” (http://www.haitiedstories.org/). The project deals with Haiti's struggle to build an education system following the 2010 earthquake.
The Society of Professional Journalists presented the School of Communication, Transitions, a nonprofit, independent online news organization, and UM’s Knight Center for International Media with a Sigma Delta Chi Award and Bronze Medallion in recognition of distinguished service to the American people and the profession of journalism through outstanding accomplishments in Digital Media Presentation for “Colorful But Colorblind: Roma Beyond Stereotypes” (http://roma.glocalstories.org/). The project delves in age-old prejudices about the Roma people by featuring personal insights into the daily lives and struggles. The SPJ competition did not have student categories, and the University of Miami was the only academic institution to win an award this year.
"I am extremely proud of our students and the award-winning work they are producing under the guidance of our exceptional faculty,” said Gregory J. Shepherd, dean of The School of Communication at the University of Miami. “And it is important to note that these awards are for work in new and digital media, as we intend to be a leader in the rapidly changing world of communication."
UM Professor Rich Beckman was “Colorful But Colorblind’s” executive producer, UM Professor Kim Grinfeder, the design director and Daniel Cloud, the programming director. Alumnus Trevor Green and Candace Barbot, an adjunct UM faculty member, also worked on the project as story coaches and trainers in conjunction with 10 multimedia graduate students and 50 journalists from Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
“At the Knight Center we set out to become an epicenter of excellence for compelling multimedia storytelling on global issues and to give voice to the unheard and unseen on underreported issues,” Beckman said. “Our graduate students have embraced these worthy goals and their work continues to bring recognition to the School, the Center and our international partners.”
UM had six finalists competing in three categories at the 2011 ONA Awards. This is the second year in a row that a UM student project has won this prestigious award. In the eight years that student categories have been judged in the competition, 15 projects by Prof. Beckman’s students have been named finalists and this is the fifth to win a top prize.
Launched in 2000, the Online News Association Awards, administered by ONA in partnership with the University of Miami’s School of Communication, are the only comprehensive set of journalism prizes honoring excellence in digital journalism, focusing on independent, community, nonprofit, major media and international news sites.
Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry, works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press.
In Beyond Assignment, the Knight Center for International Media's newest documentary, the viewer follows the life and work of three women photojournalists as they document their surroundings in Mexico City, Johannesburg and Tel Aviv respectively. The documentary gives the audience a different angle on what it is like to be a woman working in the field of photojournalism internationally. The three women featured are immersed in their work which many times derive from personal experience and interest.
Mariella Furrer, one the of three photojournalists featured in Beyond Assignment, has been working for eight years on a body of work on the subject of child sexual abuse in South Africa. She is currently working on publishing this material as a book entitled My Piece of Sky: Memories of Child Sexual Abuse.
Furrer's book is a testimony to the young children who have survived the experience of rape, and those who have lost their lives to it. It is a book that will visually seize the attention of reader through the use of photography and artwork, and will capture their minds through in-depth interviews, journals, essays and poetry by children who have been abused.
In bringing forth this difficult subject, the book will encourage governments to advocate for effective legislative protection, survivors to provide community understanding, and departments of criminology and psychology to conduct research to enhance academic understanding on the subject of abuse. In the film Beyond Assignment and in her book,Furrer's drive to bring to light the sensitive topic such of child abuse is evident. By exposing the harsh realities of abuse in her home country of South Africa, Furrer hopes to shed light on what can be done to help prevent abuse, assist those who have been abused in finding help and, in the process, save lives in a part of the world where the topic of child abuse is taboo.
Currently, Furrer's project is eligible for funding from Kickstarter.com, an organization that allows project creators to gain funding from independent donations as a means to test out their projects and ideas without financial risk and without losing any rights to their projects. If you would like to learn more about Furrer's project, please visit her Kickstarter page at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1862412233/my-piece-of-sky-memories-of-child-sexual-abuse. To watch the trailer and for more information on Beyond Assignment, please visit http://beyondassignment.org.
The University of Miami School of Communication has won a Best of Show award from The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) for My Story, My Goal, a project sponsored by the school's Knight Center for International Media. The award was announced on August 10 during AEJMC's annual conference in St. Louis, Missouri.
My Story, My Goal teamed 14 UM multimedia students with students from seven Knight Center for International Media partner schools in Africa and Asia to tell stories that personalize the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The students' work focuses on issues such as poverty, maternal health, environmental sustainability, universal education, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, and children's health. The website http://mdg.glocalstories.org/ features seven short videos and a compilation documentary.
Another group of multimedia students recently returned from Africa, where they continued working on the project.
My Story, My Goal was co-produced by Professor Rich Beckman, the school's Knight Chair in Visual Journalism, and Tom Kennedy, a former Knight Center Professional-in-Residence. It was produced by UM alumnus Ami Vitale.
The project has received international attention. Last November, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon presented a segment of the project at a G-20 Summit event in South Korea. My Story, My Goal is linked to the U.N. website's Millennium Development Goals section.
"Historically students have led some of the world's great revolutions," said Beckman. "By empowering students to produce local stories that have global impact, we are helping to start a communication revolution. Compelling stories shared through social and online media outlets can motivate change, and we can make a difference in the world one story at a time."
University of Miami School of Communication Professor and award-winning filmmaker Sanjeev Chatterjee has received a Fulbright-Nehru Research Scholar Award and will spend six months in Kolkata, India teaching multimedia storytelling to shed insight on a crucial environmental issue impacting communities surrounding the East Kolkata Wetlands.
Originally from Patna, Bihar in eastern India, Chatterjee will be working with students at Jadavpur University to create a multimedia website that will bring better public understanding of urban waste utilization and recovery.
The East Kolkata Wetlands are located east of the city of Kolkata and cover about 77 miles that include salt marshes and salt meadows. The wetlands are used to treat Kolkata's sewage, and the nutrients contained in the wastewater sustain fish farms and agriculture that feed surrounding communities. A city of 12 million inhabitants, Kolkata does not have a sewage treatment plant and the wetlands act as its “kidneys,” naturally cleansing the 160 million gallons of urban waste daily. The East Kolkata Wetlands were named a Ramsar site in 2002. The class will interview scientists, fish farmers, neighborhood consumers, government officials and other stakeholders.
“I’m excited about this Fulbright Award because it will allow me to engage with students in a process of discovery in India about a key urban issue,” Chatterjee said. “These students will be learning outside the classroom and will be sharing information on a very important issue.”
Chatterjee embarks to India on July 18.
Chatterjee is no stranger to issues that affect our global environment. During his recent role as director of UM’s Knight Center for International Media, which is committed to producing compelling visual media to solve the world's most difficult issues, he co-directed One Water, an award-winning documentary about water challenge around the globe that was broadcast on the Discovery Networks Planet Green Channel.
The Knight Center also supported Aguas Negras, a multimedia website about wastewater farming in Mexico City that first introduced Chatterjee to this issue and gained his interest to explore it further.
Chatterjee is currently working on One City, a non-verbal short documentary film that explores imminent threats to contemporary cities around the world.
“To have a teacher and filmmaker of Prof. Chatterjee’s stature is going to greatly benefit students of Jadavpur University, which has a strong commitment to environment issues,” says Abhijit Roy, an associate professor of Film Studies at the School of Media, Communication and Culture, Jadavpur University. “Together we will be creating a vibrant inter-disciplinary group of young people who will continue to work beyond this project in the field of multimedia documentation of water issues to meaningfully shape environment policies in India.”
The winner of the 2010 Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence in journalism in the Digital Media Presentation (Independent) category is Colorful But Colorblind, by the School of Communication, University of Miami, Transitions and the Knight Center for International Media.
Colorful but Colorblind is a project aimed at remedying anti-Roma stereotyping through the creative use of multimedia in reporting minority issues in new member states of the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) and internationally.
The training and production components of the Colorful but Colorblind project were designed and implemented by Rich Beckman, Professor and Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the School of Communication at the University of Miami. The project director was Tihomir Loza from Transitions. Trainers included Jim Seida, Senior Producer, MSNBC.com, Candace Barbot, CEO / Founder at Pulp2Pixel Media Inc. and Ben de la Cruz, Emmy Award winning documentary video producer and reporter at The Washington Post. Story coaches included Travis Fox, Emmy Award winning freelance videographer, NYC, Trevor Green, Senior Video Editor & Operations Assistant, Knight Center for International Media, University of Miami and Seida. Kim Grinfeder, Assistant Professor, School of Communication, University of Miami and Daniel Cloud, Senior Programmer, Knight Center for International Media, University of Miami, directed the web design and programming teams.
Ten multimedia graduate students: Danny Bull, Paula Echevarria, Paul Franz, Nick Harbaugh, Charles Ledford, Lauren Malkani, Nick Maslow, Lauren Santa Cruz, Lauren Whiddon and Chi Yang participated in the project.
Other winners in Online Reporting categories included WebMD, Las Vegas Sun, ProPublica, NPR, CNN.com, The Washington Post, Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Politics Daily, FactCheck.org, The Flint journal and The Bay Citizen/New America Media.
Judges chose the winners from more than 1,400 entries in categories covering print, radio, television and online. The awards recognize outstanding work published or broadcast in 2010.
Dating back to 1932, the awards originally honored six individuals for contributions to journalism. The current program began in 1939, when the Society granted the first Distinguished Service Awards. The honors later became the Sigma Delta Chi Awards.
Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta Chi, SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well- informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press.
Knight Chair in Visual Journalism, Rich Beckman, talks about the contribution of the School of Communication’s graduate students in multimedia journalism, their contributions to the award winning My Story, My Goal project and their job prospects nationally. Click on the links below for Rich Beckman's comments on the award-winning project and the multimedia journalism program:
Knight Center Update My Story My Goal,
The Knight Center for International Media will participate in Florida Earth Foundation’s Water Choices Forum II on February 28, hosted by the University of Miami at the BankUnited Center Fieldhouse, 1245 Dauer Drive, on UM’s Coral Gables, FL campus.
The event will be streamed online at http://knight.miami.edu.
During the forum, The Knight Center, based at the UM School of Communication, will show an excerpt of its award-winning documentary on the subject of the world’s water crisis, One Water.
Florida faces many complex challenges around water quality and regulation; natural systems and restoration; and planning for growth, distribution, and treatment. During the first Water Choices Forum, leaders and experts from across the state called for expedited formation of a water ethic. The second forum, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 28, will examine and discuss the challenges and implementation of the EPA Nutrient Numeric Criteria and an exploration of the use of water credits across the state.
Other divisions of the University of Miami are engaged in the forum, including the Leonard & Jayne Abess Center for Ecosystem and Science Policy.
“The Abess Center is honored to support this event. Water resource management is a critical issue on a global scale, particularly as the effects of extraction for agriculture, industry and human consumption are exacerbated by pollution and climate change. It will take a concerted effort across disciplines and stakeholder groups to confront the challenges we face,” said Abess Center director Kenneth Broad, associate professor of marine affairs and policy at UM’s Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science. “This conference is an opportunity to bring diverse perspectives to bear on the policy issues regarding appropriate criteria for allowable nutrient levels and allotment of water credits.”
The mission of the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy is to create innovative, interdisciplinary initiatives that bridge the gap between science and environmental policy. The Abess Center is the nexus for flexible undergraduate and graduate programs, which gives students the opportunity to learn in a problem-solving context and gain substantial hands-on experience.
The Florida Earth Foundation, a collaborative partner with UNESCO and center of training and best practices in sustainability, has committed to a think tank approach to the forums. Participants will take an active role raising questions, testing definitions, and setting the agenda for emerging conversations.
“Our Foundation is committed to respond to calls for discussion and international best practices as we approach a period of big water challenges in our regions, in the courts, and in the industry,” said Florida Earth Foundation Board Chair, Ernest A. Cox. “Leaders and experts from all fields that deal with water want a place to draw on the best possible data, express their concerns, and seek consensus. Our board has made these forums our 2011 priority.”
The conference will include a diversified audience of water system managers, public officials, international experts, attorneys, law students, scientists, educators, videographers and documenters, and engineers. Their counsel will impact the Florida Earth Foundation’s compendium of online best practices and recommendations on the future of water in Florida. The Employ Florida Banner Center for Water Resources will also provide an update on the strong job and career connection to technical training and certification in the industry.
Fairfield Index, Inc. President Don Upton, a nationally renowned expert on regionalism and collaboration, will moderate the discussion. Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Adam Putnam, will help frame the issues for a think tank setting.
Thanks to sponsors, the event will offer international audiences the opportunity to ask questions of the panelists.
Registration for the event costs $195, and includes lunch. Students with ID can register for free for limited seating. To register, or for background and notes from the first Forum, and details on CEU credits visit http://www.floridaearth.org or call the Florida Earth Foundation, 561-686-3688.
What is smart global health? How can businesses here and around the world get involved? And why should everyone care?
Top business leaders and policy experts will discuss these questions at a panel discussion, “Views from the CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health Policy,” at the University of Miami Global Business Forum at 9:30 a.m. Friday, January 14, 2011, in Shoma Hall, Room 3053, at the School of Communication, 5100 Brunson Drive, Coral Gables, FL. This panel is moderated by UM President Donna E. Shalala and sponsored by The School of Communication.
“We will be looking for a lively, interactive conversation that hears directly from our audience of business experts,” says J. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President and Director of the Center on Global Health Policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Washington D.C.-based research institution that works to develop actionable recommendations for long-term U.S. strategy on global health.
“We are very excited to pull together this dynamic panel, led by President Shalala, to talk at this important moment about where US leadership on global health is heading. These experts each bring a remarkable perspective on this question of the business sector’s role in global health,” Morrison adds.
In March of 2010, The CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health, which includes President Shalala, a former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, released a report calling on Washington policymakers to embrace an agenda for global health. The Commission understood promoting global health not only advances our basic humanitarian values in saving and enhancing lives, but adds a broader value in bolstering U.S. national security and building constructive relationships.
“Views from the CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health Policy” panelists are:
Please note that participation in the entire three-day Global Business Forum in a paid event. However, if you would like to attend this panel discussion at no charge, please RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), indicating: “
The University of Miami Global Business Forum is a multidisciplinary event bringing together some of the world’s most influential corporate and policy leaders, as well as hundreds of other experts and professionals, for three days of forward-thinking discussion on the business and delivery of health care. Topics include enhancing wellness, healthful aging, and creating health care facilities that promote vibrant communities while nurturing patients and families. To register and for more information about the University of Miami Global Business Forum, visit: http://www.bus.miami.edu/events/gbf2011/index.html.
*In 2009-2010, CSIS and the Knight Center hosted “Our Global Challenges,” a series of dialogues held in Washington D.C. that examined progress toward attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The series featured University of Miami professors, our country’s top officials, and leading experts in industry fields who discussed topics including the fair resources trade, the advancement and empowerment of women around the world, and meeting the challenge of the Millennium Development Goals in Haiti — just months before last January’s earthquake. Keynote speakers included Robert D. Hormats, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy, and Agricultural Affairs; Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues at the Department of State; and Joshua Bolten, former White House Chief of Staff and member of the Board of Directors at ONE, a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.
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They talked about grizzly bears, river pollution and how disease thrives in places where the drinking water is laced with bacteria and most of the people don’t have toilets.
The setting was Professor Joseph B. Treaster’s classroom on “Reporting Global Environmental Issues.” The speakers were Nobel Prize winner Steve Running, professors from the United States Coast Guard Academy, the founder of an ocean study center in New England, a radio reporter from southern Africa and environmental specialists from the Netherlands, Britain and Germany.
Professor Treaster, the Knight Chair for Cross-Cultural Communication, brought the experts into Miami from around the world with the televideo conferencing facilities of Skype and the high-tech equipment of the University of Miami’s School of Communication.
Professor Treaster gathered the experts for classroom press conferences with his students before video cameras in Stockholm, in New England and at the University of Montana, where Dr. Running, who shared the 2007 Nobel Prize for his work on the environment, teaches. Professor Treaster, who is also the editor of OneWater.org, the university’s environmental magazine on the Internet, organized the press conferences while traveling to write articles and recruit writers and photographers for OneWater.org.
In the press conferences, the experts around the world flashed onto a big movie screen in Miami. At the same time, a huge, live feed of the students in Miami popped up on a screen in front of the experts. With Professor Treaster as the moderator, the experts gave opening statements. Then students in Miami jumped in with questions.
Professor Treaster developed the press conferences in carrying out his work as the Knight Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication and his mandate from the School of Communication to bring the world into University of Miami classrooms and to take the School's programs out into the world, raise its already high profile and develop international collaborations.
In Stockholm, Professor Treaster laid the ground work for an intensive three-week summer course on the environment, journalism and business that he will be co-teaching in late May and early June of 2011. Some spaces in the summer abroad class are still available.
Professor Treaster organized the first of his televideo press conferences in Istanbul and Buenos Aires. The televideo press conferences were a first for the School of Communication and added a new dimension for students. “I never expected to meet all those people,” said Veronica Perez, one of Professor Treaster’s students. Heather Carney, another student, said Professor Treaster’s class had given her “an unusual opportunity.”
Most of the students had never participated in a press conference. The experience was “extremely valuable,” said Lauren Shepherd. “It broadened our horizons,” said Nicole Pamani. “I never really thought of using Skype as a professional tool. I just thought of it as something for myself and my friends.”
School of Communication associate professor and the director of the Motion Picture Program Konstantia "Dia" Kontaxis will serve as editor for One City, the short film currently in production at the Knight Center for International Media. The film explores imminent threats, such as pollution, overpopulation, and encroaching globalization, to contemporary cities around the world. Filming has been competed in Sao Paolo and Mumbai. Other locations include Miami, Florida, Masdar City in the in the United Arab Emirates and Petra, Jordan.
Dia is a filmmaker and media artist who has created films about artists including Carmen Herrera, Anna Valentina Murch and Jose Bedia, among others. Her works have been screened at festivals, museums and galleries around the world including Rome, Venice at the Art Biennale, New York at the Tribeca Film Festival, and in Montreal at Art Fifa.
As a professional film editor, Kontaxis has worked for Israeli film director Amos Kollek, and New York photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally. In a Q&A, she talks about a film editor's role, gives audiences a sneak peak of One City and shares what it is like working with husband Ed Talavera, director of photography of the film:
A. To articulate the vision of the director.
A. World Cities is shot on the Canon 5D. We decided on a workflow that allows us for a bit more control of color space by expanding with CineForm HD. The CineForm files are then linked through AMA and transcoded to .mxf files on the Avid Media Composer 5 for editing. So the short answer is Avid MC5.
A. We are working one city at the time. Right now I am working on India. There are two personal stories through which we experience life in one of the most densely populated cities in the world, Mumbai.
A. No it is easier because I know how he thinks and how he shoots. He has this great ability of communicating through film and it is pleasure to edit his work.
A. Both [Producer/Director] Sanjeev [Chatterjee] and Ed have done a great job in explaining to me how things are on the ground and I use this information to try and edit these stories with as much respect to the subjects as possible. I think it is very easy to make a film that condemns a way of life when you do not have to live it, it is much harder to do justice to way of life that you have never before experienced.
A. A filmmaker is by definition someone who makes films. In that sense a filmmaker can be a director, editor, cinematographer, sound person or anything else required in the process of making a film. I enjoy equally producing, directing and editing. It ultimately depends on the project. But truly my creative process takes place in the editing room because I get the challenge and satisfaction of seeing a project finally come together.
The first phase of One City is scheduled to premiere in spring 2011.
TEDxMIA from KnightCenter on Vimeo.
Story by Bolton Lancaster, video courtesy of Simone BergerThe audience of about a 100 people sat in the dimly lit room and leaned in their seats, attentively listening as Sanjeev Chatterjee stood in the spotlight and told a story from his childhood that was animated in the slideshow behind him. It was a hot day in India as he turned on the ceiling fan and splashed some cold water on the floor so that he could lie in and cool down. Light poured through a hole in the skylight overhead and turned the room into a camera obscura, allowing him to see upside-down images from outside of the house. Before long, he started to hear voices of a crowd and explosions, seeing images of people running past his house as police chased them in the turmoil of political unrest.
Chatterjee, vice dean of the School of Communication at UM and Executive Director of the Knight Center for International Media, used this anecdote to open his speech at TEDxMIA, an event November 4, 2010 at The Wolfsonian on Miami Beach that aimed to spread and inspire new, innovative ideas through speeches and presentations.
Throughout his speech, Chatterjee focused on how the common language of visuals could be used to spread new ideas. He stressed that the world is gradually becoming more connected and that people are becoming increasingly interested in creating digital images. During his presentation, Chatterjee showed a clip from the video documentary that he helped make: One Water, which focuses on the importance of conserving fresh water around the world. The movie does not use any narration, making it ideal for spreading ideas to people regardless of what language they speak.
“There are almost 7,000 living languages,” Chatterjee said. “What I was looking for was what is some kind of a common language? And things like visuals and music are able to reach people at a very basic level for communication across borders.”
Isaac Prilleltensky, Ph.D., dean of the School of Education at UM, also delivered a speech at the event, critiquing different ideas rumored to increase community well-being and offering solutions to these misconceptions.
“We are very arrogant. We tell people how to live their lives when we haven’t got a clue as to what kind of lives they lead,” Prilleltensky said. “We should empower people. We should give them a voice as opposed to telling them how to live their lives.”
Other speakers covered a wide range of topics, from explaining how power harnessed from the Gulf Stream could power 7 million homes and businesses in South Florida to describing the importance of art in Miami. One of the speakers was Rodrigo Arboleda, chairman and CEO of One Laptop per Child Association, an organization aimed at promoting education around the world by providing impoverished children with a laptop as well as giving children a sense of ownership.
The curators of the first-time event, who followed general TED guidelines but independently organized TEDxMIA, were confident in their goal to continue holding the program once every six months due to its popularity.
“I enjoyed this event because there is a great opportunity to learn about what’s happening in the community,” said Mayur Patel, an audience member. “This is a great way to learn about the hidden talents and resources that are here.”
TEDxMIA started in 1984 as an organization that brought together people from the fields of technology, entertainment, and design in hopes of spreading new ideas. While the talks have expanded to cover many other areas, TED derives its name from those three areas that it initially covered.
The organizers of this inaugural event said they hope to hold the program every six months due to its popularity.
The University of Miami’s Knight Center Millennium Development Goal’s Project, “My Story, My Goal” was featured at the G20 Summit in Korea on November 11.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon requested the Knight Center project to show at the MDG Forum of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, an event held during the Summit hosted by Korean Ambassador Dho Young-Shim, Chairperson of the Sustainable Tourism for Eliminating Poverty Foundation, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, which brought together more than 100 Korean Parliamentarians.
The Secretary General, a guest speaker at the event, wanted to share a segment of the project filmed in Sierra Leone “to move an audience with a powerful video on extreme poverty in the world,” according to a UN official.
My Story, My Goal was created by 14 multimedia students from the School of Communication who teamed with students from seven Knight Center for International Media partner schools in Africa and Asia to tell stories that personalize the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The students created “My Story, My Goal” to shed light and insight on these critical global issues, including poverty, maternal health, environmental sustainability, universal education, gender equality, HIV AIDS, and children's health.
The project recently received the prestigious top prize in the national completion by the Online News Association in the Online Video Journalism, Student category.
“My Story, My Goal” is now featured on the United Nation’s Millennium Goals website.
Photo credit Bolton Lancaster
As the group of children ranging from ages 3 to 16 awaited anxiously in the art studio decorated by their colorful paintings and designs, there was an air of excitement in the room as they were told what they would be doing that day. They were going to practice something that they did not have much experience with: photography. IgKnite, the student volunteer organization with the Knight Center for International Media at University of Miami, traveled to Art Studio Miami in Little Haiti Saturday morning to teach children about photography put those skills to work. IgKnite recorded interviews of the different children asking them what their artwork meant to them as well as how they use it to help cope with their everyday lives, ultimately hoping to make a video that would premiere at the art studio and feature the children’s paintings and photographs.
The nine children were given digital cameras to use for the day and taught a few basic principles of photography before they walked over to “The Farm,” a unique house in the Little Haiti neighborhood that is open to the public and has converted its backyard into a living place for birds, goats, and wild boars.
As the group of children casually walked the streets that they are so familiar with, they eagerly snapped photo after photo of different people and landscapes while keeping in mind what they had been taught. The real treat, however, was taking pictures once they arrived at their destination, where signs were painted with bright colors, the backyard was full of a wide variety of tropical plants, and the animals were surprisingly willing to act as models. “My favorite part was going to The Farm and taking pictures of the ostriches because I had never seen them before,” said David Thomas, a 12-year-old who said that he had never shot a photograph before the event. The volunteers from IgKnite said they enjoyed their time while teaching, joking with, and learning about the children. “It was interesting to go there and ask them which places they liked in their community and then take them there,” said Eric Hurley, a senior majoring in electronic media and geography.
The idea to hold the photography workshop stemmed from a successful event last spring that IgKnite and the University of Miami Student Activist Alliance (UMSAA) held at the Konbit for Haiti headquarters in Little Haiti, where the children learned about water conservation and asked to snap photographs in their community of what water meant to them. The children picked out their favorite pictures and wrote captions. The photographs were later sold at an auction to help raise money for Shalom Village Orphanage in Haiti.
Art Studio Miami was an ideal spot to hold the second photography workshop because of the studio’s emphasis is on providing youths with a safe spot where they can have opportunities to experience activities that they might not be able to otherwise.
“Through the arts we can teach creative thinking, we can teach career skills, we can teach self-empowerment and self-confidence and that’s what it’s about,” said Soralee Ayvar, the director of operations for Art Studio Miami.
Earlier this season, countries around the world stood up and made noise for the Millennium Development Goals, including eradicating world hunger, improving maternal health and universal education by 2015. The Knight Center for International Media’s student group, igKnite partnered with ONE to engage the University campus in the world-wide movement also.
ONE is a non-partisan campaign fighting against extreme poverty and preventable global diseases.
The event on Sept. 14 and 15 consisted of a Stand UP moment and pledge reading. The movement was adapted this year to take into account the MDG Review Summit that took place September 20-22 in New York.
“Our common interest in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals has fostered an active partnership with ONE and we are happy to be hosting this again,” says Eric Hurley, igKnite student member, who organized this year’s event and was introduced to ONE last year.
“In less than a year, ONE signed up more than two million members and create a powerful grassroots political force in support of better policies for combating poverty,” adds ONE Congressional District Leader Alix Gordon. Gordon is also the District Chair of CARE, a humanitarian organization fighting global poverty.
In September 2000, 189 world leaders adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as part of the Millennium Declaration, agreed to at the United Nations Millennium Summit. Six years later, the first Stand Up Against Poverty event was created to raise awareness and to demand that world leaders end poverty and achieve the MDGs.
This year, a total of 1,328 events were registered in 74 countries. Five events were officially registered in Florida. “The MDGs offer us a roadmap to end poverty and its root causes. ONE has supported the MDG's and the annual Stand Up event since inception,” Gordon says. In 2009, 173 million people across the globe participated in the Stand Up holding thousands of events, she adds. The 2009 event was recorded as the largest worldwide action in history in the Guinness Book of World Records.
“The issues are human and we feel we can directly affect them by donating our time” says Hurley. “Stand UP reflects something universal, the deep sympathy of being a person. The organizations represented all encourage you to give your time to those in need because you are lucky enough that you can.”
October 31, 2010 - Coral Gables, FL - The Knight Center for International Media at the University of Miami School of Communication received the prestigious top prize in the Online Video Journalism, Student category for “My Story, My Goal.”
“This recognition will serve to inspire our young professionals to continue to tell stories that others ignore about fellow citizens of our world who deserve our attention and respect,” said Sam L Grogg, dean of the School.
The Online Journalism Awards, launched in May 2000 to honor excellence in digital journalism around the world, are administered by the Online News Association (ONA). Over the past decade, the OJAs have recognized major media, international and independent sites and individuals producing innovative work in multimedia storytelling. The Awards Committee and judges place special emphasis on entries that are original to the Web or demonstrate mastery of the special characteristics of digital journalism. Winners were announced October 30, 2010 during a banquet at ONA’s annual convention in Washington, D.C.
For the “My Story, My Goal” project, 14 multimedia students from the School teamed with students from seven Knight Center for International Media partner schools in Africa and Asia to tell stories that personalize the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The students created http://mdg.glocalstories.org/ to shed light and insight on these critical global issues, including poverty, maternal health, environmental sustainability, universal education, gender equality, HIV AIDS, and children's health. The project was co-produced by Prof. Rich Beckman, the School’s Knight Chair in Visual Journalism and Tom Kennedy, a Knight Center Professional-in-Residence during the Spring 2010 semester.
Sanjeev Chatterjee, Executive Director of the Center said, "This award goes a long way to validate our conviction at the Knight Center for International Media that collaborative visual storytelling allows us to better understand the diverse world we live in. I am thankful to Prof. Rich Beckman, Tom Kennedy and of course a dedicated group of students and teachers in Miami and the seven cities across the world who made it happen."
In the seven years that student categories have been judged in the competition, nine projects produced by Professor Beckman have been named finalists and this is the fourth to win one of the top prizes.
The site includes the seven short videos and a compilation documentary. The following students worked on the project:
Ajelogo: After the Bulldozers Sanni Abodun, Lagos State Polytechnic, Nigeria Charles "Stretch" Ledford, University of Miami Jesse Swanson, University of Miami Peter Ogusu, Lagos State Polytechnic, Nigeria
Primary Education: Investing in the Future Danny Bull, University of Miami Mukulika Dattagupta, Jadavpur University, India Abhisikta Dasgupta, Jadavpur University, India Lauren Santa Cruz, University of Miami Shankhamala Ray, Jadavpur University, India
Empowered in Hong Kong Deborah Acosta, University of Miami Olivia Chang, Hong Kong Baptist University Lauren Whiddon, University of Miami
Beyond the Value of Nutrition Paula Echevarria, University of Miami Guantai Benson, Daystar University, Kenya Nick Maslow, University of Miami Julius Waweru, Daystar University, Kenya
Where Every Pregnancy is a Gamble Lauren Malkani, University of Miami Ami Vitale, University of Miami Kumba Gborie, University of Sierra Leone Aziz Sesay, University of Sierra Leone
To Live a Regular Life Nick Harbaugh, University of Miami SuPamon Ingkhapradit, Thammasat University, Thailand Jatechan Kirdsuk, Thammasat University, Thailand Chi Yang, University of Miami
Pollution is Political Paul Franz, University of Miami Oliver Meth, Durban University of Technology, South Africa Stephanie Wehrung, University of Miami
This Is My Goal (Documentary Compilation) Nick Maslow, Producer, Director and Narrator Danny Bull, Associate Producer Charles “Stretch” Ledford Lauren Santa Cruz, Associate Producer Jesse Swanson, Associate Producer
UM students enrolled in the School of Communication’s masters program in multimedia journalism participate in challenging storytelling across the globe. Recently students concluded a series of multi-platform stories about the social integration of Roma people in five European countries: “Colorful but Colorblind: Roma Beyond Stereotypes.”
Award-winning Filmmaker Sanjeev Chatterjee, the Executive Director of the Knight Center for International Media at the University of Miami School of Communication, will speak during TEDxMIA, the Technology, Entertainment and Design, conference to be held on November 4, 2010 at the Wofsonian-FIU in Miami Beach which will bring leaders and innovators from South Florida for an evening of interesting talks devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading.”
Chatterjee will address the power of visual storytelling in engaging people internationally to the world's most pressing challenges. “I am honored to be included in this community of people considered worthy of sharing their ideas with the wider Miami community and beyond,” says Chatterjee.
At the Knight Center, Chatterjee oversees the development of innovative and experimental approaches to address underreported issues, including universal poverty, maternal healthcare, and rapid globalization. His work focuses on effective communication across borders through the adaptation of evolving digital technologies.
Chatterjee co-directed the acclaimed documentary One Water, which recently aired on the Discovery Network’s Planet Green Channel. He is currently working on a short film that explores imminent threats to contemporary cities around the world due to encroaching urbanization.
Started in California 25 years ago, TED has expanded globally, with independently organized TEDx events taking place on nearly every continent. TEDxMIA is a grassroots movement devoted to spreading and supporting the diversity of ideas, innovation, and art in South Florida. November’s event will celebrate the “local geniuses” that are contributing to the global advancement of new ideas.
“TEDxMIA aims to celebrate the cutting edge minds of Miami,” said Caroline MacDonald, a spokesperson for the Miami event. “Our mission is to continue to shed light on those innovators, trail blazers and game changers here in Southern Florida. Our inaugural event is only the beginning.”
TEDxMIA’s multisensory, multimedia experience will include speakers, creative performances, and TED videos relating to the theme “Where Global Tribes Meet.”
The local event will begin at 7 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. for networking. Seats are limited. Registration is required. For more information, visit, http://tedxmia.com/
By Alessandra Villaamil
Organizers rolled out a blue carpet for students and filmmakers attending the One Water Workshop on September 24 at the Miami Museum of Science. One Water, the acclaimed University of Miami documentary about the global water crisis was screened in the museum auditorium along with 10 Public Service Announcements created by high school students who participated in spring and summer One Water Workshop sessions.
The Public Service Announcements designed for online and television outlets served as platforms to communicate the students’ own perspectives on the issue of water.
“Making the PSA really influenced my goals in life, and what I want to do,” said Robert Darcy, a junior at South Broward High School. “It showed me how working with the camera can really develop one’s imagination and creativity to be projected to the whole world and prove a point.”
The One Water Workshop was designed to educate a select group of high school students about the social and environmental issues surrounding water conservation as outlined in the film and to empower them through the principles of filmmaking by providing them with the tools and media outlets to reach a wide audience. Patrick de Bokay, CEO of the Miami World Cinema Center (MWCC) developed the workshop and recruited The Big Blue & You Foundation to facilitate the workshop.
“It was amazing to see the results of filmmakers, teachers, students and community members hard work featured on the big screen,” said Daniell ‘Danni’ Washington, founder and CEO of Big Blue & You, B.S., ’08. “This was an amazing event that brought us all together to celebrate what we’ve accomplished in less than nine months.”
De Bokay said he hopes the students walk away with skills for their future. “The number one goal the students are trying to achieve is when they start to go into the professional world to carry that knowledge with them and create proper content and images. They will be conscious of the quality of their work and the importance of the subject matter, and the narrative aspect of it,” de Bokay said. Miami World Cinema Center (MWCC) is the first non-profit film studio based in Miami that is dedicated to local talent. MWCC was awarded a Knight Foundation Arts Partnership grant to help enhance creative work and increase independent film production in Miami.
Randi Levey, a senior at Miami Beach Senior High School, said she learned a great deal about filmmaking and acting on the camera by working on the short documentary about the BP oil spill in Pensacola, entitled Black & Blue. “I hope people can take my work to heart and change their outlook on recycling and polluting because it’s a really big problem and we need to address it as soon as possible,” Levey said. “I hope they can take this message and use it the right way.”
You can see some of the students’ Public Service Announcements on Vimeo.
By Alessandra Villaamil
Thousands of miles separate forests in Indiana and Brazil, but human interaction continues to threaten them in the same way.
On Friday, September 3rd, Professor Emilio Moran presented a talk on human dimensions of environmental change, entitled “Human-Environment Interactions Research Under Conditions of Climate Change.” In his presentation, Moran compared deforestation in Brazil to Indiana, revealing the trends of deforestation in both locations are very similar. He concludes that human activity is the main aspect of environmental change.
“Human environmental interaction is the work that brings together the physical sciences with social sciences, coming from different intellectual traditions, different theories that underlie what they do,” Moran said. “We need both the social and the biological side to understand complex environmental issues.”
Moran provided graphics and visuals to demonstrate the effects of human interaction with the environment. By placing a map of Indiana directly over Brazil’s, it becomes clear that humans have significantly changed the face of our planet.
“Land cover change is the biggest change in the planet. We deforested most of Europe around the year 1000, and back in the year 1200, it looked like those pictures of Indiana. Recently, it’s grown back in Europe, but not in this continent,” Moran said. “In some places all that forest emitted CO2 which is still in the atmosphere, warming up the planet and changing its conditions.”
Kenny Broad, director of the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy and associate professor of Marine Affairs and Policy at RSMAS, explains the honor of having Moran visit University of Miami. “Emilio was at the forefront in recognition that dealing with our most pressing environmental problems would require understanding human behavior as well as the natural science aspects of the issue. He brought methods from disciplines ranging from remote sensing to cultural anthropology to epidemiology to bear on various problems. This approach as earned him a place in the National Academy of Sciences,” Broad said. “The Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy is very much modeled after this interdisciplinary approach to studying Human-Environment interaction. In fact, Emilio played a big role in helping us develop our new PhD program in Environmental Science and Policy.”
Moran is a Professor of Anthropology, Environmental Sciences and Geography at Indiana University. He is the director of ACT (Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change), co-director of CIPEC (Center for the study of Institutions, Population and Global Environmental Change), as well as a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
IgKnite wins $2,000 from True Hero, a non-profit public charity grants cash awards to schools with exemplary service projects. This year, True Hero included a special “Haiti Assistance” category.
IgKnite, in collaboration with Konbit for Haiti hosted “Flow Workshop: Uniting Children’s Visions on Water and the World” with fifteen middle school from Little Haiti attended. The first part of the workshop began with an informative group discussion about the importance of water and a screening of 1H2O, a 20-minute, non-verbal film produced by the University of Miami about the human relationship with water. IgKnite students taught the workshop participants how to use digital cameras and went on a field trip in their community capturing on camera what they felt represents water in their lives. The photographs were auctioned at the Flowfest benefit show, raising over $500 to provide for the basic, daily needs of the children at the Shalom Village Orphanage in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. “Working directly with the kids bridges the gap between the community and the activists that want to help. Seeing their eyes light up with a camera in their hands is really a wonderful feeling. Having the opportunity to guide and mature their vision is mutually empowering,” said Eric Hurley, igKnite student member.
For more information on the project, visit True Hero.
For two decades experts from around the world have been going to Stockholm in late summer for what has become the world’s largest annual conference on water.
This year – in early September— the University of Miami’s Knight Center for International Media sent Professor Joseph B. Treaster, the Knight Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication and the editor of OneWater.org, the Knight Center’s environmental online magazine, to report on the event, produce a multimedia project on water, recruit writers, videographers and photographers for OneWater.org and develop collaborations with universities and environmental organizations.
At the conference in Sweden, known as World Water Week, Professor Treaster interviewed and photographed water experts from more than half a dozen countries for the multimedia project which will distill on a single page the best thinking on the main themes involving water, including health, scarcity, flooding, pollution and human rights. The idea for the project grew out of work by Rich Beckman, the Knight Chair in Visual Journalism.
For the multimedia project on water and a series of columns to be published on OneWater.org, HuffingtonPost.com and other online publications, Professor Treaster spoke with the Minster of Water and Irrigation in Kenya, the director of China’s Center for Environmental Education and Communications, top officials from the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environment Program, the executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute and the winner of the Stockholm Water Prize, awarded this year for work on cholera and other diseases that are spread in water. Professor Treaster also spoke with teenagers from China, South Korea, Chile, Canada and the United States who competed for the Stockholm Junior Water Prize for scientific work and water experts from England, Germany, Nigeria, Ghana and other countries.
Professor Treaster signed up several new writers for OneWater.org, including journalists from Malawi and India, and developed several new story assignments with a Swedish writer who has contributed to OneWater.org with an article from Vietnam.
In its first year in 1991, World Water Week drew about 500 participants. This year, with concerns about water and the environment increasing, more than 2,500 scientists, aid workers, corporate executives and government officials from 135 countries packed a conference center on the edge of Stockholm for one-on-one conversations, interviews, panel discussions, lectures and seminars that ran late into the evenings.
By Ami Vitale
While Bangladesh has always lived with the continuous flow of water, never has its future been more precarious than today. Experts concur that the country is on the frontlines of climate change. The climatic events have deadly consequences on agriculture and food security, water, human health and is the key driver in creating massive environmental migration. Bangladesh is becoming Ground Zero for climate change.
Dhaka is the capital city of Bangladesh, and one of the world's most densely populated cities in the world. Despite the traffic, lack of space and struggling infrastructure, it is an urban magnet for millions who throng there in the hope of a better life. Every year, half a million people, almost the entire population of Washington DC, enter this mega city, fresh off the boat. Many arrive carrying little else but hope in their heart. They have nowhere to live, so the pavement, under the open sky and beside the congested traffic becomes their home.
Fourteen University of Miami multimedia students teamed with students from seven Knight Center for International Media partner schools in Africa and Asia to produce stories that attempt to personalize the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Working with Prof. Rich Beckman, Knight Chair in visual journalism and Tom Kennedy, who was the Knight Center professional-in-residence last spring, each team found personal local stories that shed light and insight on critical global issues, including poverty, maternal health, environmental sustainability, universal education, gender equality, HIV AIDS and children's health. The project was initiated in Beckman’s Spring 2010 Multimedia Storytelling class. Photography, research, and filming went on through the summer and culminated with the students producing poignant documentary-style videos posted on http://mdg.glocalstories.org/ “The project model was geared towards engaging young media makers in a cross-cultural exercise that has yielded compelling visual stories about some of the most pressing issues around the world,” said Knight Center Executive Director Sanjeev Chatterjee. To define those issues, the center uses the UN Millennium Development Goals as a framework. “The Knight Center is interested in developing this model further and sharing the stories across borders,” Chatterjee added.
The project was designed to allow UM students to work closely with students from other countries, allowing them to share in a cross-cultural experience as they produced their stories. The Knight Center funded the students’ travels as part of its Our City anchor project and the Resident Professional project. The Master of Arts in Multimedia Journalism program was created in 2009 to provide students with the opportunity to enhance their abilities as visual storytellers and to better understand the contexts within which those stories are produced. The 18-month program emphasizes storytelling that includes meaningful content within the global community. Last spring, along with studying with the regular program faculty, the students worked with Tom Kennedy, the former managing editor for multimedia at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive who has been honored with many industry awards, including local and national EMMY awards and three consecutive Edward R. Murrow awards for video journalism.
Story by Alessandra Villaamil
On September 7 at 10:00 a.m., US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer will be addressing “Making the Most of the MDG Summit: Advancing Progress through Empowerment of Women and Girls” at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. The event is part of a series of dialogues on global issues made possible by the School of Communication Knight Center for International Media, concerning the efforts made towards achieving the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals. The UN MDGs include: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger; achieving universal primary education; promoting gender equality and empowering women; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development.
“These events and panels in collaboration with CSIS allow the Knight Center to play a significant role in keeping issues related directly to the Millennium Development Goals in front of the policy community in Washington,” said Sanjeev Chatterjee, Knight Center for International Media Executive Director.
"Our new partnership with the University of Miami's Knight Center for International Media will provide a unique forum to discuss critical issues of global significance," added CSIS President and CEO John Hamre. "We are proud to partner with the Knight Center, as it is ideally positioned to help us explore and shed light on some of the world's most pressing policy challenges."
As an ambassador for global women’s issues, Verveer works to incorporate women’s rights in the development of U.S. foreign policy. She coordinates activities pertaining to the social, political, and economic advancement of women worldwide, and garners support for women’s rights and empowerment through various programs and initiatives that aim to provide access to health care, education, and protection from violence.
“Ambassador Verveer will be giving us a preview of the Obama Administration's efforts towards advancing progress through the empowerment of women and girls which has been a priority of development policy for President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It's an important time for CSIS and the Knight Center to be hosting Ambassador Verveer as she will be joining President Obama in New York in mid-September for the United Nations High-level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals,” said H. Andrew Schwartz, vice president for external relations at CSIS.
The United Nations Summit on Millennium Development Goals will take place from September 20-22 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. All countries and Heads of State and Government are to attend the meeting, including President Barack Obama. The primary purpose of the summit is to ensure the progress and achievements of the goals by 2015.
Note: “Making the Most of the MDG Summit: Advancing Progress through Empowerment of Women and Girls,” will stream live on http://knight.miami.edu and http://csis.org.
Story by Alessandra Villaamil
Under Secretary of State Hormats and experts discuss responsible resources trade at CSIS/Knight Center panel - "There is a moral responsibility of the news media to say 'we care.'"
Washington, DC - The Knight Center for International Media at the University of Miami School of Communication, continuing its partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, hosted another installment of "Our Global Challenges: A Series of Dialogues on the Pressing Issues of Our Time," with a panel on "The Responsible Resources Trade."