Brave New World: Telling Global Stories in a New Media Age

Pulitzer Center Executive Director Jon Sawyer and Contributing Editor Kem Knapp Sawyer will speak at Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL on January 29, 2015.

The two will give a public lecture "Brave New World: Telling Global Stories in a New Media Age" in which they will address the challenges of covering global news at a time of web overload and under-resourced legacy media—and the new approaches toward addressing those challenges by non-profits like the Pulitzer Center. They'll also discuss their e-book Congo's Children, which was released in 2014. Jon and Kem have reported together from India, Bangladesh, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, for outlets that include The Washington Post, The Atlantic, PBS NewsHour, and Christian Science Monitor.

The Speakers

Jon Sawyer is executive director of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-profit that promotes in-depth engagement with global affairs through its sponsorship of quality international journalism across all media platforms and an innovative program of outreach and education.

Sawyer became the Center's founding director after a 31‐year career with the St. Louis Post Dispatch, including 12 years as the newspaper's Washington bureau chief. He was selected three years in a row for the National Press Club's award for best foreign reporting. His work has also been honored by the Overseas Press Club, a national Emmy, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Inter‐American Press Association, and the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Sawyer studied English literature and history at Yale University. He has held journalism fellowships at Princeton and Harvard universities.

Kem Knapp Sawyer is a contributing editor at the Pulitzer Center, working with journalists and university students on international reporting projects. Her own reporting includes writing on children at risk in Congo, Haiti, Bangladesh, and India. She co-authored the Congo's Children e-book with Jon Sawyer.

Her books for young readers include Refugees: Seeking a Safe Haven, The Underground Railroad in American History, Lucretia Mott: Friend of Justice, Freedom Calls: Journey of a Slave Girl, and biographies of Nelson Mandela, Mohandas Gandhi, Anne Frank, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

A graduate of Yale University, Kem Sawyer majored in English and French. She has taught creative dramatics in elementary schools, English and drama in high school, and writing in the BFA program at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. Visit www.kemsawyer.com.

Brave New World: Telling Global Stories in a New Media Age
Thursday, January 29, 2015
7 pm
Lewis Auditorium
14 Granada Street
Flagler College
St. Augustine, FL