French-American International Symposium on Immigration Coverage in Media, Pt. 2

ANYTIME I JET SOMEWHERE to attend a conference, panel, or event, it throws me off the beam for a minute. Time/schedule, moneywise, headwise, too. To be expected, as I am a one person operation here juggling many angles, and up and taking a few days off is a gap in normal doings that will have an impact. Especially when you are flying cross country, which for me means three planes and a full day of traveling in either direction.

The last post I wrote on the French American Foundation Conference was definitely the one I needed to write when I first came back as it was the one with the most visceral impact. It was fresh in my mind, it helps me set a pool of info and memory and idea to refer back to when I edit the video, and even by itself, tells some of the story that needs to be told. The soon-to-be released video will tell a richer, more visual, sonic, and emotional side of that same angle—what I think of as the emotional/cultural/social side of the trip. The field work where we got out in the mix, and the setting that occurred in.

Soon, I will post on the informational side of the event. The drier, academic side wherein notes and lectures and data added up to create clearer picture of the global immigration story and movement. Because there really was a wealth of information. I have recorded most of it. So I can listen back and make notes. I simply can’t do it now. I missed my weekly deadline for NWN, so I am working on that as we speak; also working with the Digital Stoneworks Gamecrafting Studio team on a couple games, cleaning house and maintaining website stuff, you know how it is. Changing diapers, banging congas, sweeping floors.

I’ve included one picture of one graph (above), which at full size, may be readable. I found it very interesting and useful information, in fact. It shows how large a surveyed part of a handful of nations’ perceive their immigrant population to be versus how large it actually is. As you can see, in every single nation, people grossly overestimate how many of “them” are among “us.” Points away from factual happenings spurring the overall society’s feelings on immigrants and toward other realities, internal ones, emotions, beliefs. There was a slew of this kind of data that will be useful in discussing immigration in many contexts. I hope to find the time soon to break those recordings down and share them with you.