“Covering Newtown”

Starts: April 19, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Ends: April 19, 2013 at 2:00 pm

The news media’s coverage of the Dec. 14 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings will be discussed at a forum hosted by the University of Connecticut’s Journalism Department.

“Covering Newtown,” will feature a panel that includes local and regional journalists, a relative of one of the victims, the police spokesman who fielded media inquiries during and after the incident, and a UConn journalism professor.

The event, moderated by WNPR News Director John Dankosky, starts at 1 p.m. on Friday, April 19, in the Konover Auditorium of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center on the Storrs campus.

Twenty young students and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School died in the December incident, in which the gunman also killed himself and his mother. It drew news crews to Newtown from around the world and continues to dominate headlines as firearms legislation is debated nationwide.

The panelists will examine the best and worst news coverage of the Newtown tragedy and discuss the challenges of producing accurate, contextual and sensitive journalism in the immediate hours and days after such an incident.

The event is free and open to the public. Reception to follow.

Hosted by the UCONN Journalism Department with support from the Connecticut Daily Newspaper Association and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

More details available on UCONN Journalism Department’s Facebook page.