ANN ARBOR—”Shaping the Welfare Debate: The Press, Policy and Public Perception” will be discussed by a panel of nationally known journalists and welfare experts at 1:30-5 p.m. Feb. 17 at the University of Michigan Business School’s Hale Auditorium.

Sponsored by the Michigan Journalism Fellows, the U-M School of Public Policy and School of Social Work, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the free, public event will focus on recent changes in the federal welfare program and the media’s role in shaping public perception and policy.

“Welfare has become a nebula of our most explosive political issues—race, wealth and education,” says Charles R. Eisendrath, director of the Michigan Journalism Fellows. “Its coverage is no less controversial, and is seldom discussed beyond journalism reviews. For the first time, we are bringing together a carefully balanced selection of major players from the trenches, the classroom and the newsroom.”

Panelists include Sheldon Danziger, U-M professor of public policy and social work; New York Times correspondent Jason DeParle; Kevin Fobbs of the Wayne County Family Independence Agency; M. Gasby Greely of the National Urban League; Washington Post reporter Judy Havemann; columnist and former welfare recipient Rita Henley Jensen; social policy writer Mickey Kaus of the New Republic; the Atlantic Monthly’s Nicholas Lemann; New York University politics Prof. Lawrence M. Mead; Cecilia Munoz of the National Council of La Raza; and Wendell E. Primus, former deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

For more information, call Debbie Banks, Michigan Journalism Fellows, (313) 998-7666.

Michigan Journalism FellowsSchool of Social WorkSheldon Danziger