Conversations Live: Media Literacy

Bill Hallman
Instructor, Penn State College of Communications

Bill Hallman is an Emmy Award-winning producer with more than a decade of experience in the television industry. He has produced live newscasts in small and major markets. He serves as the faculty advisor to “46 Live” the student-run production team that broadcasts Thon. He will also assist in the development and expansion of CommAgency.

Matt Jordan
Associate Professor, College of Communications

Matt Jordan is a critical media scholar who works on the role of media in everyday culture. He was a double major in history and English at Allegheny College, and earned an MA from Drew University in modern European intellectual history. His doctorate, from Claremont Graduate University, is in European Studies. He is executive producer of the Penn State Humanities Institute’s Emmy-Nominated documentary seriesHumIn Focus, which is broadcast on WPSU and on the web. Along with being the Film Production and Media Studies department head in the Bellisario College, he is also leading Penn State’s News Literacy Initiative, which includes hosting a radio show/podcast called “News over Noise.”

Kelley Cotter
Assistant Professor, College of IST

Kelley Cotter is an Assistant Professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at The Pennsylvania State University. She received her Ph.D. in information and media from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in library and information science from Drexel University. Her research explores how data-centric technologies shape social, cultural, and political life, and vice versa. Her most recent work focuses on how people learn about and make sense of algorithms, and how such insight may be mobilized in efforts to govern platforms.