Long Island University and the Center for Communication Present George Polk Awards Seminar:
Muckraking in a Global Age
— Free Event Takes Place on April 1 at the HBO Theater at 5:45 p.m. —

Brooklyn, N.Y. – Major corporations and the global power they wield in shaping the culture and economies of entire countries will be the focus of this year’s George Polk Awards Seminar, hosted by the Department of Journalism of Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus and the Center for Communication.

Entitled, "Muckraking in a Global Age," the seminar will be held Thursday, April 1, from 5:45 to 7:30 p.m. at the HBO Theater, 1100 Avenue of the Americas, 15^th floor, New York City. A reception, in honor of Polk Career Award winner F. Gilman Spencer, will follow. The event is free and open to the public; since seating is limited, reservations are required.

"We’re in an age when tracking the activities of multinational corporations presents special challenges," says Brooklyn Campus journalism professor Ralph Engelman, who is the coordinator of the seminar. "It requires a great deal of sophistication and understanding of the intersection of foreign policy and economic policy. All our panelists have done exhaustive and original work to make the American public aware of the impact of the practices of American corporations on the world stage."

Panelists include Nancy Cleeland, member of a team of Los Angeles Times reporters that won the 2003 Polk Award for Economics Reporting for "The Wal-Mart Effect," a series on the global power of the world’s largest corporation.

Also on the panel are Polk Award-winner for business reporting, Aaron Bernstein of BusinessWeek, for "Is Your Job Next?" on the export of white collar jobs abroad; and Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, which won the 2003 Polk Award for Internet Reporting for "Windfalls of War: U.S. Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan."

F. Gilman Spencer, career award-winner and former editor of the Denver Post, New York Daily News, Philadelphia Daily News and The Trentonian, will be the respondent. Former Polk Award winner Robert Krulwich, ABC News Special correspondent, will moderate the discussion.

For information or to reserve a seat, call 212-686-5005 (Center for Communications) or e-mail info@cencom.org.

Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus opened in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. More than 30,000 students currently are enrolled at the University’s three residential and three regional compuses, including more than 11,000 at the Brooklyn Campus.