Surviving the Media Maze: With all this information, where is the wisdom?

“I have a feeling that the information highway has reached a dead end,” says Michael Enright.  “We are so flooded with so-called information that we are drowning in it.  The result is a dislocation, a sensation that when everything is deemed important in some way, nothing is important.  A lot of this is attributable to the internet and the rise of social media.  Social media have two fronts; one is the trek of inconsequential people doing inconsequential things.  The other is the wide dissemination of hate and the threat of violence, not to mention actual harm done to women, young people, and indeed to the political process itself. To paraphrase T. S. Eliot, ‘with all this information, where is the wisdom?’”

This lecture is a live, in-person event in Cameron Hall. You do not need to pre-register to attend – just show up.

BIOGRAPHY:

Michael Enright is a high school dropout with three honourary degrees and the Order of Canada. He has lectured at the University of Cambridge. 2022 marks his 60^th year in the practice of journalism. He began in April 1962 at a weekly newspaper in Brampton, Ontario and has since worked for TIME Magazine, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and Maclean’s Magazine. He was assistant managing editor of Maclean’s and editor of Quest Magazine.  He hosted CBC Radio’s As It Happens for ten years and The Sunday Edition for twenty. Michael Enright’s favourite food is Oreo Cookies.  He likes to ride horses and motorcycles and knows how to brand a calf.