Starring more than 130 activists, scholars, students and Hollywood producers, the Symposium on Social Issue Media will make its debut on May 9 and 10 on the Evanston campus.
Inspire Films, a student initiative at Northwestern, organized the two-day forum to tighten up the loosely defined term of “social issue media” — using media to advance social causes, by one definition — and explore media ethics, responsibility and representation.
The product of a year of planning, the symposium will introduce a “buffet” of social issues to the Northwestern community, said Communication senior Robert Lavenstein, co-director of the symposium. When it comes to social media, the definition is in the eye of the beholder.
“Social media is not governed by a corporate interest but is rather at the hands of the social public,” Lavenstein said.
For Weinberg senior Elizabeth Frantz, a member of the organizing team, social media should go “beyond entertaining” to “transcend the product itself” and “advance a cause.”
But even with piecemeal definitions, the symposium takes a hard line in advancing its own cause: getting students across Northwestern to work together. “The whole idea is to build the bridges between students from different schools so that they will be able to collaborate in the future,” Lavenstein said. “There’s so much talent that has been compartmentalized.”
Last spring, Inspire Films introduced an annual $2,000 grant that funds a social-issues film. Aquellos, directed by RTVF sophomore Alberto Roldan, will premiere Friday evening as the first Inspire Films Grant production. It documents the Puerto Rican community in Chicago’s Humboldt Park.
“We were really excited about Alberto’s visions and his potential as a leader,” said Frantz, who was in charge of organizing the premiere for the grant. “The film definitely evolved over the process of making it.”
Roldan’s film will be just one of a marathon of events. Four master classes will explore the use of the media for community activism, while 20 panelists, including Hollywood producers Bryan Stamp and Angel Lopez, will talk about the representation of race in film and television, the role of ’socially conscious’ celebrity campaigns, and the ongoing struggle to define social media.
While surprised and excited about the positive response of the guests invited, Frantz felt challenged to create an event of this scope from scratch. ”We had high expectations and we were trying to live up to those. It was fun but also really challenging to be shooting in the dark.”
“We’ve been living, and eating and breathing [the symposium],” Lavenstein added.