This year’s Louis B. O’Donnell Media Summit is coming on Oct. 17, where five panelists will come to campus, stopping by classes and workshops sponsored by the media organizations, to speak on the topic of social media advocacy and the nature of social movements in the digital era.

Joining the five panelists will be five Career Connectors, who are recent Oswego alumni who have gotten jobs in the media industry. The Career Connectors provide advice, information and networking opportunities to those interested in media jobs post-graduation.

The people leading the event this year are Abbey Buttacavoli, a senior broadcasting and mass communication major, Boni Quatroche, a senior public relations major, and Michael Riecke, an assistant professor in the Communication Studies department. They, along with an executive board of 11 students and a series of faculty in various college departments, have worked for nearly a full year to bring this summit together.

“From the moment the fall semester starts to Oct. 17, the date of the summit, the majority of my time, whenever my laptop is open and I’m doing something, I’m working on something for the media summit,” Quatroche said.

The media summit, according to Riecke, is a chance for students at Oswego State to get in contact and hear from professionals, oftentimes leading professionals in their fields, as they share their viewpoints on topical media questions.

The event, despite focusing on media, is intended to appeal to the entire student body. The topics covered often extend beyond simple media issues to a broader concept that almost everyone can find interesting and important.

“We’re hoping that these topics are typically issues that impact all of us and should hopefully compel any student, regardless of area of study, to come and watch and take in a debate or discussion about an issue that is most likely important to them or has shaped their world in some way,” Riecke said.

The media summit, sponsored by alumni Al Roker and Lou Borelli, is intended to be a unique opportunity for Oswego State students and goes above and beyond the traditional speaker series Oswego and other colleges and universities typically host.

“Most schools will have speakers that come in on a regular basis, and we certainly do that here at Oswego as well,” Riecke said. “I think what makes the media summit unique is that we hone in on a very specific theme, and the conversation revolves around that critical issue. That is less common, I think, at a lot of universities.”

Another unique aspect of the summit is the fact that, not only is the summit run almost entirely by students, but it is also planned year-round, something Riecke said is a lot less common for speaker events.

The summit is intended to focus on budding media issues each year. Last year’s summit focused on politics in media and the concept of “fake news,” which was heavily concentrated on following the 2016 presidential election.

“The way we come up with the topics, the past two years, we’ve been very lucky,” Quatroche said. 

This year’s topic references movements like the #MeToo movement, Blue Lives Matter, The March for Our Lives, Black Lives Matter and the Pro-Life movement, as well as the plethora of other social media discussions that have taken the national spotlight in recent years.

Buttacavoli and Quatroche both got involved with the summit after attending the event themselves. Buttacavoli said she attended it twice before realizing she could have an active hand in the planning and execution.

“I went to the media summit my freshman and sophomore year, and I loved it and didn’t really realize it was student-run until a lot of my friends that I had in classes said they were on the media summit e-board,” Buttacavoli said.

Buttacavoli and Quatroche are working as co-event directors this year, which involves coordinating the efforts of the faculty involved and the students on the executive board, as well as running the search for panelists and Career Connectors and managing the various other parts of the event alongside Riecke. They are also responsible for coming up with the theme of the summit.

Buttacavoli and Quatroche both expressed that a lot of work makes the summit possible each year.

“We want to let people know that so much time and energy goes into this,” Buttacavoli said. “Videographers are putting in hours and hours of editing time, graphic designers are putting in hours of time, and everyone is putting in a lot of logistical time.”

The summit is an all-day event, starting with the panelists touring campus and visiting select classes within the School of Communication, Media and the Arts. The summit itself will start at 3 p.m. in Waterman Theater, in Tyler Hall. Following the summit, at 4 p.m., students will be able to meet with the Career Connectors and network.

“I really want this to be an event that is a SUNY Oswego event, not just an event that solely captures the interest of communications students,” Riecke said.

Photo provided by Boni Quatroche