Houston Chronicle legal reporter to speak April 13 on reporting and blogging from court as part of IJPM lecture series

Houston Chronicle legal reporter to speak April 13 on reporting and blogging from court as part of IJPM lecture seriesMarch 30, 2009Jaime Winne Alvarez jlwinne@syr.edu

On Monday, April 13, Houston Chronicle legal reporter Mary Flood will present “The Important vs. the Interesting: Reporting and Blogging from Court” as part of the spring “Law, Politics and the Media” lecture series presented by the Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics and the Media (IJPM). Her lecture, which is free and open to the public, will take place from 3:50-5:10 p.m. in Room 204 at the Syracuse University College of Law. Parking is available in SU pay lots.

Flood, a lawyer, is a legal reporter for the Houston Chronicle. She previously worked as a legal reporter for the Wall Street Journal’s Texas Journal. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Flood practiced law for three years in Washington, D.C., and Houston. She has taught media law and ethics at the University of Houston and has won more than 50 awards for excellence in reporting and writing.

The American judicial system today operates in a complex environment of legal principle, political pressure and media coverage. The goal of the “Law, Politics and the Media” lecture series is to provide an introduction to the court system and its environment as a single, integrated subject of study. Throughout the spring semester, sitting judges, practicing lawyers and working journalists will be featured speakers. The lecture series is part of an interdisciplinary course on law, politics and the media that is cross-listed between the College of Law, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The course is taught by SU professors Keith Bybee (IJPM director), Lisa Dolak (IJPM associate director) and Mark Obbie (IJPM associate director), and funded through support from the John Ben Snow Foundation and the Carnegie Corp. of New York.

Launched in September 2006, IJPM is an academic institute devoted to the interdisciplinary study of issues at the intersection of law, politics and the media. A collaborative effort of the College of Law, Maxwell School and Newhouse School, the institute sponsors lectures, conferences and symposia designed to foster discussion and debate among legal scholars, sitting judges and working journalists.

For more information on the “Law, Politics and the Media” lecture series and IJPM, visit http://jpm.syr.edu.