SC&I alumnus, Dr. Kole Ade Odutola, Yoruba Lecturer at the University of Florida, will be speaking on Wed., March 7 at Rutgers about his new book, Diaspora and Imagined Nationality: USA-Africa Dialogue and Cyberframing Nigerian Nationhood. The lecture, including a book signing, will be held at 7:30pm-9pm on March 7, in the in the Scholarly Communication Center on the 4th floor of the Alexander Library on the College Avenue Campus.  

The Ledger did a big spread on my book, A Legacy of Madness: Recovering My Family From Generations of Mental Illness. Here is the story: http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2011/11/tom_davis_a_legacy_of_madness.html .

Time Tuesday, October 11 · 5:00am - 7:00am Location Alexander Library Rutgers University PANE Room, 169 College Avenue 08901 New Brunswick, NJ Created By Tom Davis More Info Rutgers University book signing/reading for "A Legacy of Madness: Recovering My Family From Generations of Mental Illness." First published book by Tom Davis. Book will be officially released on Oct. 3. Event at 5 p.m.

  It was a gig that came from out of space; and I think I'm still stuck there. Somewhere in between a galaxy of reality TV and all the normal people, I was called in the midst of my recovery from qualifying exams to cover a housewife. And not just any housewife, but Teresa Guidice.

If you haven't seen it, check out the Khan Academy ( www.khanacademy.org ).  It's a new non-profit online learning initiative with some very helpful videos and interactive lessons explaining various topics in math, science and some other fields. It represents an innovative and effective approach to online teaching and learning and at a very affordable price for the learner...free!  

This letter was finished and sent to the Daily Targum a bit too late to be considered for any issue before Monday, so here it is now.   In reading, watching, and listening to the reactions to the tragedy of  Tyler Clementi's suicide  by many in the university community, I was surprised to see how many people were resistant to or ignorant to the idea of safe spaces.  A letter to the editor published in yesterday's Daily Targum by Mr. Chang insinuated that my desire to live, work, and study in a safe space is a privilege, a privilege that should not be extended to me without a fight. &

Some words from someone who has been here a bit... Unaccustomed as I was to seeing major talents amicably sharing the limelight, I did not know at first what to make of this situation. There they were the three of them, stuck together in an enclosed space, surrounded by an expectant audience. It was like the Three Tenors...or maybe an episode of WWE accidentally chanced upon. “

I am developing the new syllabus for my fall journalism course here at Rutgers and I will be re-enforcing the need for telling the truth in journalism.   No longer will my students refer to a “black” person or a “white” person.   They will have to use their creative vocabularies to come up with a different way to describe people when writing news stories. &

There's a great deal of buzz about Apple's iPad, introduced to the U.S. market yesterday, Saturday, April 3, 2010. The device in many ways represents the best example of a convergent media device yet, and shows particular market promise as a digital entertainment, portable e-reader, with a fascinating user interface.   But, it's worth considering more than than the media and business implications of the iPad, or other e-readers.  Take a look at this opinion chart (by DANIEL GOLEMAN and GREGORY NORRIS) from the April 4, 2010 issue of the New York Times, examining the environmental and political context of e-readers, such as the iPad.

As the sporting world prepares for the Final Four phase of that annual rite known as “March Madness,” madness seems a fitting term indeed.   From Las Vegas to bookie joints in New York City, betting pools at work and in cyberspace, the nation is consumed with some simple arithmetic generated by young, mostly African-American students.   Points scored, rebounds grabbed, assists dished out, minutes played – these are the statistics that consume college basketball players, coaches and fans. &

The advent of the Internet and digital age of communications has brought forth the expected decline of newspapers at a faster pace than many business journalism experts predicted. A major part of the decline results from publishers not adjusting their products and news gathering techniques fast enough to changing technologies. Publishers competed in a digitally dominated world using analog-based technologies, business models and journalism techniques.

If you're curious about the basics of the so-called "new media" - but feel intimidated by the idea of cutting video or designing a website - I suggest stopping by Room 119 at 12:50 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 5. My aim is to show how mobile journalism has become the most common and easiest way for writers to get on the web. Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} I've set up a workshop for learning the basics of mobile journalism (and I'm talking basics - such as how to get a cell phone video uploaded to a news site). I'm making this available to all students, but it would be particularly useful for new students who need to know more about what's expected of reporters these days (especially when they're being recruited to work for hyperlocal sites such as patch.com).