The Penn

A panel of representatives from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and the Student Editors Interest Group will discuss current issues challenging the media Wednesday.

The symposium, held from 7 to 9 p.m. in the HUB Delaware Room, is hosted by the IUP chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists with the help of the IUP journalism department.

The panel, which will feature IUP journalism alumni among others, will speak about media convergence and the changes facing Pennsylvania news media today, said IUP's SPJ President Anna Goth (junior, journalism).

"We have not done anything to this magnitude recently," she said, "[David] Loomis, (SPJ faculty adviser) and some students restarted the IUP chapter of SPJ two years ago. As president, I've been trying to build the organization's momentum. My goal this year has been to propel the organization forward."

The organizations secretary, Liz Gaffron (senior, journalism/English,) said the symposium is meant to help students who plan to enter the field of journalism some day, but is also important for many other people.

"It's obviously important for students who want to make their careers in news media to understand and be able to analyze current trends in the business, but, as news consumers, we also need to pay attention to the methods used to provide our information," she said.

Because of this, the panelists will discuss what media convergence means to news consumers, as well as journalists in the field.

Each panelist will express and debate his or her views on what the mixing together of different media types - especially print, Internet and television - means to the news media, Gaffron said.

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