Jane Jacobs and other activists were canny media strategists, and they worked both mainstream and alternative outlets to spread their messages, affect public perception and try to create both community and change. Today, blogging and other virtual forms of journalism are being used to greater and lesser effect by activists, developers and others trying to shape the debate over the city’s future.

This panel will consider the lineage of activist journalism, from pamphletting and the early Village Voice to today’s online investigative journalism and community organizing.

• Sewell Chan, The New York Times — moderator
• Gay Talese, author
• Norman Oder, Atlantic Yards Report
• Alberto Vourvoulias-Bush, El Diario
• Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake.com