Citizen journalists gather for RightOnline 2012

Estate of Denial^® is back in Texas after a great weekend in Las Vegas attending Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s fifth annual RightOnline conference.  This event attracts bloggers and other citizen journalists from across the country through its offering of new media training along with expert panels addressing various public policy issues.

EoD friend Will Lutz posted a piece Who is a Journalist in the New Media Age? at Dallas Blog.  It gives a good overview of comments from several event speakers – former 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin and National Review’s Jonah Goldberg.

Besides providing opportunity to get updated on “the latest” in new media platforms, it’s great to hear and discuss perspectives with folks involved in a cross-section of advocacy issues.  The whole question of who is a “journalist” in today’s media landscape is an interesting one.  While EoD obviously comes at things with a particular perspective, we believe  incorporating a large degree of fact-based material to support our positions creates credibility.  Past that, the audience can accept or reject, take or leave our content.  Being information advocates is our goal – call it what you will!

Much of the weekend also included tributes to the late Andrew Breitbart, a regular participant in AFP events and an individual who inspired not only serious passion for advocacy, but  demonstrated the power that effective use of new media outlets can bring.  Andrew truly was a “happy warrior” in the battle over our country’s future direction.  His spirit continues today.

He is missed, but RightOnline 2012 well made the point that even in death, Breitbart is here!  Thank you Andrew – you brought great inspiration to many of us!  Thank you Americans for Prosperity – the training and issue education you provide is playing a critical role in shaping our country’s political dialogue!