Student artist wins esteemed theater award
Victoria “Tori” Tomalia has won the Don and Elizabeth Doyle Fellowship Special Recognition Award for her offerings to theater for youth.
Tomalia is an Eastern Michigan University graduate student studying applied drama and theatre for the young.
The Doyle Fellowship is named in honor of the Doyles’ duration of inspired work in theater for youth, and is awarded to an exceptional graduate-level student who exerts artistic ability within this specialized area of theater.
“It is wonderful to be recognized for my contribution to the Theatre for Young Audiences field,” Tomalia said in a press release. “I was incredibly flattered to be in a roomful of some of the biggest names in my field, and to be surrounded by people who believe in youth and art as passionately as I do.”
EMU professor envisions a ‘Newsphere’ to engage, excite news consumers
Christine Tracy, a journalism professor at Eastern Michigan University, is one of the first scholars to bring an ecological perspective to the news.
Tracy wrote “The Newsphere: Understanding the News and Information Environment,” to combat disillusionment with news, which is often so highly dramatized, commercialized and packaged that it is no longer news and certainly not journalism.
Tracy’s newsphere describes the web of connections created by conscious and responsible sharing of news and information through emerging technology.
“News stories form the fabric of our lives,” Tracy said. “What we determine to be news is important because we use news stories to think about ourselves, each other and the world.”
She urges more consumer awareness and personal responsibility. Tracy also offers strategies for those who consume the news including: conducting a news “fast” to discover unconscious news consumption, having the consumer ask themselves if what they are watching, reading or listening to is really important to them, limiting exposure to one-sided news, monitoring physical responses to news stories and observing instead of judging.
Tracy said journalism at its best can be a consciousness-raising practice, paving the way for significant social change that has historically been witnessed in areas such as women’s suffrage, environmental protection and civil rights.
- Shop with a Cop event*
Police officers and firefighters from around Washtenaw County helped 84 children and their family members spend up to $50 on anything they wanted Thursday at the Meijer stores in Pittsfield Township.
In a Dec. 7 AnnArbor.com article, Pittsfield Township Public Safety Director Matt Harshberger said it was the 13th time the event had been put on in Washtenaw County and the first time it had been spread across two different stores at the same time.
