Shear Colbert Symposium “If It’s Fake, It Can’t Be News”
MARSHALLTOWN – Marshalltown Community College will host the Shear Colbert Symposium on the theme of “Fact or Fake: Information Today” with three speakers this spring.
The Symposium will begin with the lecture “If It’s Fake, It Can’t Be News” with speaker Rekha Basu on Thursday, February 24, from 11 am to noon via Zoom and in Dejardin Hall on the MCC campus.
Longtime Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu has written news stories and opinion commentaries for print and online publications, blogged, been a guest on national TV talk shows, been syndicated by various wire services and hosted an online talk show of her own. She’ll talk about what separates legitimate news from agenda-driven propaganda, why it can be hard to tell the difference, and why society suffers when the two are confused.”
Basu contends that “some politicians like to dismiss any news that doesn’t favor them as “fake news.” Some interest groups have set up websites promoting stories purporting to be news but which are in fact concocted to fit an agenda. And now the Iowa Senate will no longer allow news reporters from mainstream Iowa news outlets on the Senate floor to report on the proceedings. Senate leaders claim they can’t determine which of the multiple print, online, blogger, radio or TV news sources are worthy of inclusion.
The second lecture on March 31 will be presented by Iowa State University Distinguished Professor Michael Bugeja. The final lecture in the series is scheduled for April 14 with Drake University Assistant Professor and STEM librarian Dan Chibnall.
The Shear Symposium lecture series was organized by history professor Dr. Tom Colbert in 1984 as a memorial to his predecessor, Professor George A. Shear. The lectures will be held from 11 am to Noon followed by questions from the audience. All the lectures will be available via Zoom at https://iavalley.zoom.us/j/94078727759. For more information about the Symposium, visit the Shear Colbert Symposium website at https://sites.google.com/view/shearcolbertsymposium/2021-2022.