Lifelong Learning Academy Presents
“Let’s Get Critical: Find Out How to Become a Better Viewer, Reader, and Listener of the News”
Thursday, January 21 § USF Sarasota-Manatee
Al Tompkins, an Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist, teaches audiences to dissect news stories and question their sources of information.
(Sarasota-Manatee, Florida) Lifelong Learning Academy (LLA) presents Al Tompkins, a senior faculty member for broadcast and online formats at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg. Tompkins, an Emmy and Peabody award-winning journalist, teaches audiences to dissect news stories and question their sources of information. The talk, part of Lifelong Learning Academy’s “Lecture Series,” is Thursday, January 21, 3-4:30 p.m., in Selby Auditorium at the University of South Florida, Sarasota-Manatee, 8350 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. $10 general admission; free to LLA members. To register, visit www.LLA-SM.org or call 941-359-4296. Walk-in registrations will be taken as space allows.
“Now, more than ever, critical thinking is vital,” says Janna Overstreet, Lifelong Learning Academy’s executive director. “Today’s media-saturated world bombards us with disconnected facts and images. Our minds take in a constant stream of sound bites from the presidential campaign, footage of the latest terrorist atrocity, the ups-and-downs of the stock market, and so on. But facts without context are meaningless. Al will teach us how to effectively analyze the flood of information, and learn to see the big picture behind it.”
For almost 10 years, thousands of people a day read Tompkins’ online column “Al’s Morning Meeting” on Poynter.org. He is the author of the book, “Aim for the Heart: A Guide for TV Producers and Reporters,” which was adopted by more than 75 universities as their main broadcast writing textbook. Tompkins also co-authored four editions of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation’s “Newsroom Ethics” workbook. Tompkins was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame and, in 2008, awarded The Governor’s Award, the highest honor given by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. During his two and a half decades as a journalist, Tompkins has won the National Emmy, The Peabody Award (group award), the Japan Prize, the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel for Court Reporting, seven National Headliner Awards, two Iris Awards and the Robert F. Kennedy Award. He also serves as a final juror on the duPont-Columbia Awards, the Scripps Howard National Journalism Awards, and is a national screener for the Investigative Reporter and Editor awards. For more info about Al Tomkins, visit www.aimfortheheart.com.
Lifelong Learning Academy offers four course terms annually. Each course lasts two to eight sessions; most classes meet for an hour and 20 minutes weekly. For more information about Lifelong Learning Academy, call 941-359-4296 or visit www.lla-sm.org to view or request a catalog.
