Best Selling Canadian Author Joins Aug. 3 Conference
Warren Kinsella, best selling Canadian author and popular Canadian blogger, will be a panelist at the Exploring the Fusion Power of Public and Participatory Journalism, August 3, 2004, Toronto.
His books include a national bestseller about organized racism, titled Web of Hate (HarperCollins, 1994, and republished in 1996 and 2001); a best-selling novel, Party Favours (HarperCollins, 1997); and, most recently, a book about political communications, called Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics(Random House, 2001).
Kinsella will show, through personal experience, the power of citizen publishing and will be coupled with Jay Rosen, PressThink blogger and chair of the New York Univerity Department of Journalism. He will address the impact the Warren Kinsellas of the world are having on the news media. Kinsella joins David Akin, another Canadian blogger, who is also a nationally known TV and print journalist.
Kinsella is a raconteur, bon vivan and – occasionally – a Toronto-based lawyer, author and consultant. We know that because he wrote this biography, including:
He is not profound, bu it is said that he can be useful in a stick-swinging, bench-clearing brawl. He once wanted to be a Jesuit priest, but failed the entrance exam.
Warren is counsel and principal with a Toronto firm. Before that, he was a special assistant to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, and chief of staff in a pile of federal ministries.
Warren has written four books: one on international terrorism, called Unholy Alliances (Lester, 1992);
Warren has also been a newspaper and magazine columnist. At the moment, he writes about popular culture for something called accessmag, and he is penning the definitive book on punk rock music for Random House. We are not making this up.
His blog was established a few years ago, before anyone knew what a blog was, to allow people to read some of the things Warren has written, or to allow them to contact him directly. Recently, however, it has become a bizarre hodge-podge of political commentary, music reviews, and other stuff.
Warren is bemused and perplexed by the fact that anyone, including members of his immediate family, are in any way interested in what he has to say. His three-point pet theory about why blogs are currently interesting is as follows: one, mainstream media organizations are taking more and more content offline, thereby making blogs the alternative; two, blogs simultaneously licence voyeurism and exhibitionism, all in the safety of one’s own living room; and, three, the Internet is indeed a vanity press for the demented – and he proudly counts himself amongst the dementees.
Not registered for the Exploring the Fusion Power of Public and Participatory Journalism conference? Do so now here.
Here is a partial list of the people who say they will be attending:
Warren Kinsella, best selling Canadian author and blogger.
David Akin, journalist and blogger, CTV News and Globe and Mail
Jay Rosen, chair NYU journalism department
Dan Gillmor, Mercury News columnist, author We the Media
Jeff Jarvis, president, Alliance.net at Newhouse publications; Buzzmachine
Jan Schaffer, director, J-Lab
Neil Heinen, editorial director, WISC TV, Wisconsin
Tom Warhover, journalism professor, University of Missouri
Chris Waddle, editor, Anniston (Alabama) Star
Steve Smith, editor, Spokane Spokesman-Review
Rebecca MacKinnon, fellow, Harvard University, NKZone
Melinda Robins, professor, Emerson College
Leonard Teel, professor, Georgia State University
Andrew Haeg, reporter, Minnesota Public Radio’s Interactive Journalism unit
Chike Anyaegbunam, professor, University of Kentucky
Andrea Frantz, professor, Wilkes University
Gil Thelen, publisher, Tampa Tribune
Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder), Iranian blogger, Toronto
Anne P. Kothawala, president & CEO, Canadian Newspaper Association
Michael Skoler, managing director of news, Minnesota Public Radio
Shayne Bowman, co-author, We Media white paper
Sharon Iorio, associate dean, communication professor, Wichita State University
Lewis Friedland, professor, University of Wisconsin
Dennis Foley, reporter, Orange County Register
Nikhil Moro, professor, Kennesaw State University
Mike McDevitt, professor, University of Colorado
Mike Adkinson, publisher, Techlinks Media, Georgia
Jack Rosenberry, professor, St. John Fisher College
Mary Lou Fulton, publisher, The Northwest Voice, Bakersfield, California
Peggy Kuhr, Knight Chair in Community Journalism, University of Kansas
Rich Riski, professor, Peninsula College
Leonard Witt, president, Public Journalism Network, Kennesaw State University
Marty Steffens, Missouri Chair in Business and Financial Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism at University of Missouri at Columbia.
