OLLI at USM Newsletter April 2020

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute USM O L L I N E W S L E T T E R April 2020 www.usm.maine.edu/olli

OLLI Adjusts Special Section on the In so many ways OLLI keeps us con- Camden Conference nected and engaged. While the coronavi- rus pandemic has caused the cancellation Report on the of face-to-face classes, we’re busy behind the scenes with ideas about how we can ensure that our OLLI serves you. Conference We are training a group of OLLI faculty who want to experi- Page 6 ment with us in providing distance learning. This is NOT a dreary Note on the sort of online learning but a lively, social, and easy-to-use strategy using Zoom conferencing, teleconferencing/PDF or Google slides, Conference e-mail, and perhaps even Facebook. Page 9 This is our game plan moving forward: Our top priority is to move forward with the 15 to 20 courses and workshops that we hope to conduct via distance learning— IN THIS ISSUE through Zoom, teleconferencing, e-mail, or some other technique (such as Facebook instruction if the instructors are familiar with [Hint: Click on these to it). Training occurred during the weeks of March 16 and 23, for jump to their page.] classes starting the week of March 30. Your instructor should have been in touch with you with options on how to proceed.  Social distance Our second priority will be to add content by developing a sec-  Community Com- ond wave of classes offered by faculty who want to regenerate mittee News classes or offer new ones. We can use Enroll to register students into them (free of charge) and then set up these classes in April or  Special Interest so. These offerings can be a series or a one-off lecture. Groups Our third priority will be to add experimental content, using various techniques for conversation, for Meet and Mingles, for  New Reflections theater performances, or for GoPro hikes. This period of experi- Deadline mentation will continue later in the spring and into the summer.  We recognize that even if the summer session can move along OLLI Dining Out without problems on a face-to-face level, we will need to prepare Suspended for a potential fall with the renewed need for distance learning options.  Walking Club Steps Aside We promise to stay in touch with you about OLLI classes, workshops, and distance learning experiments moving forward. Please feel free to get in touch with us via e-mail (donna.anderson@ maine.edu; [email protected]). Thank you for your patience and we’re looking forward to find- ing new outlets for your passion for learning. Best wishes! —Sue Jennings and Donna Anderson. April 2020 Page 2 Social distance doesn’t mean social isolation! We have a committee on Distance Learning, as part of the OLLI Advisory Board strategic plan- ning. As we all know, the biggest appeal to OLLI is the social interaction. Distance learning does have a role to play in OLLI. Let me explain what I mean. Zoom Video Conferencing is an online tool that can be used to conduct distance learning in real time, allowing us to remain socially connected during a period when we are asked to socially distance. A Zoom-enabled OLLI class, depending on the instructor’s needs, can include many of the features of an on-site class in Wishcamper. These may include everyone’s being able to see and hear each other, plus the use of PowerPoint and video presentations. Zoom is not going to replace all of our classes in the future. But when things get back to normal, Zoom can be a way for us to reach students who may not be able to be on campus for a variety of rea- sons: No longer mobile In the hospital or sick No longer driving When a Zoom class is in session, students can log in at any time and join the class in progress—just like in Wishcamper. If the instructor has archived (recorded) a session, students can access the weeks they missed, catch up, and rejoin the class in later real-time sessions without feeling left behind. When we didn’t have distance learning, there were potential fellow students whom we couldn’t include in our classes. My hope is that in the future, distance learning will be an opportunity for us to keep a portion of our population engaged even when they can no longer make it to campus. Distance learning is intended to enhance our ability to meet our students’ needs. Physical classrooms will not disappear. The silver lining with the tough decisions that we have needed to make recently is that we now have an opportunity to test Zoom as an option on a larger scale. Instructors won’t have the stress of making sure everything runs without a hitch, and our students will have an opportunity to become familiar with a new learning platform. Yes, there will be a learning curve. So let’s use this time to stay connected and learn the technology that will be a tool we can use in the future. The beauty of OLLI is that we can decide how we want to engage. Not all members participate in all of the options OLLI offers: SIGs, brown bags, SAGE, or classes. Distance learning is just another option we will be able to offer to our community.

—Star Pelsue

● OLLI Runs on Volunteers ● Back to Page 1 ● OLLI Runs on Volunteers ● April 2020 Page 3 ADVISORY BOARD Susan Jennings, Chair Community Committee News Steve Schiffman, Vice-Chair Peter Curry, Secretary There has been a rumor going around about OLLI Excursions’ Paul Doherty, SAGE Chair plan for a May trip to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts to see the Elizabeth Housewright Monet exhibition. That rumor was true. But the sad fact is that it is Communications Chair no longer true, and that OLLI Ex has had to cancel the reservation. Gael McKibben and Rae Garcelon, Even had we not canceled, the MFA would have done so a couple Community Co-Chairs Georgia Koch, Nominating Chair of days later as Massachusetts began shutting down public institu- Walter Allan and Betsy Wiley, tions. Education Co-Chairs Karen Day Also canceled, before even being announced, is the May Hidden Matt Goldfarb Treasures series, Behind the Closed Doors, visits to the physical Dick Leslie workings at Portland Stage, the Kotschmar organ, and Channel 6. Star Pelsue However, these can and will be rescheduled and offered in the fall. Steve Piker There are high hopes but hesitant expectations that a June 22 trip OLLI members are invited to attend to Strawbery Banke might survive the travel ban, so check the Advisory Board meetings. Check May Newsletter. with the Chair for time and place, or if you wish to address the Board. In the meantime, here is a word from Tom Lehrer: https://youtu.be/R6qFG0uop9k

WEB SITES Maine Senior College Network www.maineseniorcollege.org OLLI National Resource Center www.osher.net Special Interest Groups: OLLI at USM www.usm.maine.edu/olli Suspended Animation

OLLI STAFF At this time, based on policy at USM and OLLI, it seems prudent Donna Anderson, Director and responsible for us to cancel Special Interest Group activities Rob Hyssong, Program Coordinator through April. The 11 groups meeting in Wishcamper cannot hold Sue Schier, Admin. Assistant meetings there until the OLLI schedule resumes. For the five groups meeting off campus, certainly the two based in restaurants OLLI NEWSLETTER will not meet, and skiers have completed a successful season at OLLI Office: this time. As for the walkers and bikers, I feel safe in saying we do Wishcamper Center 210 not want to contribute to the spread of this menace, and while we P. O. Box 9300 Portland, ME 04104-9300 meet outside, there is still the opportunity to come in contact with someone who has been exposed and has not tested positive yet. So Phone: 207 780-4406 or 1-800-800-4876 we must adhere to the measures being imposed on our communi- TTY 1-207-780-5646 ties by the authorities. We will get through this—and sooner if we Fax: 207 780-4317 all take the threat seriously and do not let our guard down. E-mail: [email protected] Tim Baehr, Editor I thank you for your cooperation and look forward to a better sea- Don King, Editor Emeritus son when this all ends. Star Pelsue, Kathleen Sutherland,, Contributing Writers —Rae Garcelon, SIG Coordinator Mogens Ravn, Layout Editor Please send newsletter material to the OLLI Office, via our e-mail. Deadline for the May issue is April 15.  Back to Page 1 ● OLLI Runs on Volunteers ● April 2020 Page 4

Writers and poets, artists and pho- tographers, craftspeople all—lend us your talent! Since we will for the foreseeable future be con- necting remotely and spending more time in our homes, there should be enriched opportunities for each of us to reflect and to revisit the ways creativ- ity is important to our lives. The team of OLLI members at work on the ex- panded special anniversary edition of Reflections coming this fall is seeking many more submissions in any genre: photographs of three-dimensional work and handcrafts most welcome! There is a new deadline for submitting your work to Reflections: April 20. Please review the instructions on how to submit in the February OLLI Newsletter on the OLLI website: https://usm.maine.edu/sites/default/files/olli/ OLLI%20Newsletter%20February%20%202020- TB3.pdf A shorter version is in the March Newsletter: https://usm.maine.edu/sites/default/files/olli/ OLLI%20Newsletter%20March%202020-TB.pdf Scroll down to page 5. Tim Baehr, Submissions Manager, will be glad to assist if you have questions or photo issues ([email protected]). Thanks, and every good wish until we can meet again.

● OLLI Runs on Volunteers ● Back to Page 1 ● OLLI Runs on Volunteers ● April 2020 Page 5 OLLI Dining Out Suspended for April As we are a Special Interest Group meeting off campus, the closing of the University does not affect us. However, many people have concerns about meeting to dine out. Also, restaurants have recently either closed or converted to takeout and/or delivery only. Therefore, April Dining Out will not take place. Depending on conditions in the middle of April when the notice is due to the Newsletter for your viewing, we might meet in May and June. Feel free to scout out places to go to next time and send them to me. Thanks for your continued participation, support, and conviviality. —Barbara Bardack OLLI Night Out Coordinator [email protected]

Walking Club Steps Aside for Now Unfortunately, I feel I must cancel the Walking Club outings for April. Our new schedule will start in May if possible. I am very sorry to have to take this step, but none of us want to be responsible for Group at Pratt’s Brook in February spreading this dreaded virus, and it seems most sen- sible to join other community leaders in limiting our exposure to someone who is infected. Please call a friend to take a walk and look forward to many wonderful walks with our group in the coming months. I’ll be in touch. —Rae

A good group walked at Riverside Golf Course in March

● OLLI Runs on Volunteers ● Back to Page 1 ● OLLI Runs on Volunteers ● April 2020 Page 6 Special Section Reporting on the Camden Conference Tim Baehr [The OLLI Newsletter was given press credentials to attend and cover the 2020 Camden Conference. OLLI members Betsy Mayberry, Karen Massey, and Kathleen Sutherland, among others, played a sig- nificant role in pre-conference seminars and courses, and in the Conference itself. See Kathleen’s note on page 9. These are my recollections of the Conference, with the caveat that any inaccuracies are my own and not from the speakers.]

The Camden Conference “was founded in 1987 as a nonprofit, non-partisan educational organization whose mission is to foster informed discourse on world issues.” It provides deeper understanding and in-depth discussion in a world where complex questions are often oversimplified and reduced to biased sound bites or social media memes. In his introductory remarks Matt Storin, president of the Camden Conference, described the Conferences as “Davos for people who fly commercial.” The Camden Conference this year was a multi-day event originating live at the Camden, Maine, Op- era House and live-streamed to various locations, including Hannaford Hall on the USM Portland campus. Its topic was “The Media Revolution: Changing the World.” This seems to be a two-way phe- nomenon, with world events changing how the media reports them and the media in turn influencing how events play out in the world. And lately the media itself has become part of the story, with mostly electronic distribution of news, fake news, news about fake news, manipulation of public perception, and outright lying. The leadoff keynote speaker was Nicco Mele, from the Harvard Kennedy School, on “Remember Rule #1: It Will Get Crazier.” He outlined the transitions of news reporting from print media through TV coverage to the totally diffuse spread of information (and misinformation) via the internet. The media has always been subject to manipulation and falsehood, and there has at times been considerable rot at the core. The result, then and now, is that institutions become weak for lack of people’s trust in them, and eventually the balance of power becomes due for corrections. Modern media technology has pushed power away from institutions to individuals, often people with little or no discerning skills to sort out truth from falsehoods. The power has also gone to computer al- gorithms, which select news items for us. The financial situation in the media—costly print vs. cheap bytes and pixels, plus the loss of advertising revenue that kept print media in business—has led to loss of local coverage, less trust in any media, lots more junk (fake, but not always), and information pollution by “content creators” posing as journalists. Truth is hard to measure. Trust is easy to measure—and to manipulate. We are witnessing a collapse of traditions. Other collapses in the past have taken a generation to re- pair. The current political environment reflects much of the current malaise, but is not the sole cause of it. A high-profile person—a movie star or a TV personality—can hijack their party and increase personal power by reshaping or eliminating weakened institutions. With its basic lack of accountability, internet media may accelerate the consolidation of power; three billion people will come online in the next three to five years.

● OLLI Runs on Volunteers ● Back to Page 1 ● OLLI Runs on Volunteers ● April 2020 Page 7 Camden Conference Continued Nic Newman is a journalist, digital strategist, and Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. In his talk “Changing Media across the Globe: Challenges and Opportunities,” Newman presented information about the use of various platforms (TV, online, social media, print media) across various generations and nations. Where people get their news varies greatly from country to country. In some countries, there’s even a pivot to audio, with podcasts and audio news reports. There’s a trend among some younger people toward multitasking—listening to a podcast, for instance, while texting or playing games. He summarized his main points: In the digital age, trust is diminishing in both politicians and the media. Business models are being disrupted. Paywalls are beginning to replace advertising revenues. Some people are developing a fear of misinformation. Audio is an increasing source of information. Joshua Tucker is Professor of Politics, Director of the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Rus- sia, and Co-Director of the NYU Social Media and Political Participation lab. His topic was “Social Media, Democracy, Fake News, and Fact-Checking.” He pointed out that, though social media gives voice to the voiceless, it can also be a tool for censorship and manipulation. When authoritarian re- gimes prevent access to mainstream media, social media can provide access. But pro-democracy tools can also be used by bad actors with bots, trolls, and misinformation. Tucker also noted that most people don’t share fake news in their social media accounts, but that small numbers of people share a lot. The vast majority of fake news is pro-Trump, and, curiously, conservatives over 65 shared the most. Fact- checking and identifying fake news is possible, but not perfect and subject to bias. Crowd-based fact- checking often reveals the truth but not the false. Online privacy may be good or bad, but it does limit access to data; for instance, Facebook has immense amounts of data that it doesn’t share. Jeff Jarvis is a journalism professor and Director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Jour- nalism at City University of New York. In “Hands Off Our Net!” Jarvis first outlined the history of media from Gutenberg in 1450 to modern times. It was not until 1900 that radio provided a medium that could reach masses of people, followed by TV in 1950 and the internet browsers in 1994. By 2020, the internet had become a dominant force in mass communication. At each stage, Jarvis pointed out, new technologies were met with resistance, followed by euphoria, and then dystopia. Moral panic arose about technology as a threat to society and a means of social control. Today’s media has a role in misogyny, racism, and white supremacy, but those ills already existed before the internet and the spread of social media. Control always has unintended consequences, and some practices either operate against each other or contain internal conflicts: freedom of speech, satire, the right to be forgotten, the distinction between illegal and legal-but-harmful, platforms’ responsibility for their users and content, regulation attempts, and due process. Journalism is at its best, according to Jarvis, when it consists of an informed, respectful, and productive conversation. Courtney Radsch is the Advocacy Director for the Committee to Protect Journalists. In “Press Free- dom in an Era of Information Warfare,” Radsch talked about “virtual lynchings” to intimidate and si- lence journalists through state-sponsored online harassment (sometimes leading to assassination). Jour- nalists can’t opt out of social media, thus putting themselves into digital and personal danger. Attacks on the media from overseas entities (e.g., the Internet Research Agency in Russia) now have a domestic source in tweets from Trump (about ten percent of his numerous tweets). In the other direc-

● OLLI Runs on Volunteers ● Back to Page 1 ● OLLI Runs on Volunteers ● April 2020 Page 8 Camden Conference Continued tion, western firms are exporting advanced tools to suppressive countries. Maria Ressa is the CEO and Executive Editor, as well as one of the founders, of the Philippine online news organization Rappler.com. In “Fighting Back with Data,” Ressa talked about her experiences as a gadfly to Roberto Duterte, the president of the Philippines. These experiences included mul- tiple arrests. She noted that Facebook is, essentially, the internet in the Philippines, and is a breeding ground for disinformation by the government. With the exponential rise in lies, the lies become facts. Ressa and Rappler continue the struggle. Lydia Cacho Ribeiro is an award-winning journalist, author, social activist, human rights advocate and a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Agency against Drugs and Crime. She recounted how, in her work as an investigative journalist, she was arrested and tortured for exposing child sex trafficking in Cancún and for sheltering abused women and children. (Ultimately, the child porn leader was convicted and sentenced to 113 years and the torturers to 5 years.) Cacho continues to risk her life defending the rights of women and children and challenging government and business leaders who profit from child prostitution and pornography. Jason Rezaian, currently “Global Opinions” writer for the Washington Post and CNN contributor, was a journalist in Iran who in 2014,was arrested and was imprisoned for 544 days, 49 of them in solitary confinement. His wife, Yeganeh, currently with the Committee to Protect Journalists, spent 72 days in solitary and was subsequently released. In their presentation, “The Middle East: Media’s Role in Political and Social Change,” the couple recounted their ordeal, including the efforts of Yeganeh and Jason’s mother and brother, plus celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. Jason was finally released in 2016 in a prisoner swap. He was transported to Geneva and then flown in a US military jet to Germany. Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, then flew Jason home in his private jet. Kathleen Hall Jamieson is a Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communica- tion, and Director of the university’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. For Jamieson, power is not in facts but in narrative. A “Free Jason” button (Jason Rezaian; see above) she saw someone wearing began a conversation. Jason Rezaian’s arrest could be framed as jailed “because of the crime of spying” or more compellingly “because of the crime of journalism.” Fact checking is not enough; a fact is not an end in itself. Those who can control the narrative can provide a frame for the facts. Jamieson suggested that if it’s fake, it’s not news. It’s “imposter news.” She calls the spread of imposter news “viral deception” or VD. As with the other VD (venereal dis- ease), viral deception is not to be shared. One of the problems of fake news, such as Hillary Clinton’s hacked e-mails, is that the hacked mate- rials are dumped into mainstream newsrooms in such quantity that it overwhelms the real news. This can lead to reporting that is not independently verified or tested for newsworthiness. Selective framing misleads by stripping news of context. In the case of selective release of the Pode- sta tapes, the mainstream media became unwitting de facto instruments of Russian intelligence. Hacking and dumping will continue, so all news must be vetted as to source, content, and motive before dissemination. NOTE: Videos of the presentations and panel discussions have been archived on the Camden Confer- ence website (https://www.camdenconference.org/2020-camden-conference-videos/).

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Note on the Camden Conference OLLI’s Role in the Conference’s Southern Maine Initiative Committee

I had the pleasure of participating in the Camden Conference Southern Maine Initiative Committee, which organized community events in Southern Maine in the fall leading up to the Conference. This year’s Conference topic was “The Media Revolution: Changing the World.” The committee was comprised of concerned and active citizens and included several OLLI members and faculty, who organized a series of talks given by scholars and journalists on some aspect of this topic. The talks were given in libraries in the area that commit to participating in the Camden Conference outreach. Committee members also organized the participation of high school and university students in the Conference, a vital goal of the Camden Conference in informing and cultivating the younger generation and future leadership of the community at all levels. Two OLLI members team-taught a course on the media in the winter term at OLLI. They are the Committee’s Chair, Betsy Mayberry, and Karen Massey, a retired teacher and lawyer. Two other OLLI faculty members gave library talks. I was one of them, addressing “The Role of Social Media in Spark- ing Arab Spring” in three library talks in Falmouth, Kennebunk, and Scarborough. Andrea Hester gave two library talks on “The Media and Foreign Policy,” one at Falmouth and the other in Portland. The committee is one of the finest I’ve participated in, as the members are very enthusiastic, efficient, and productive! The Camden Conference itself, streamed from Camden, was very informative and intense! The Con- ference speakers came from a variety of backgrounds providing deep insight into the problems of “fake news” and the possible conflict between straight journalism and political and social activism. The basic message conveyed is the necessity for individuals’ community participation at the grass roots level! —Kathleen Sutherland

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