NPR ombudsman to give Robison Lecture at Bradley

Peoria, Illinois...March 6, 2003... Jeffrey Dvorkin, ombudsman for National Public Radio, will give the Spring 2003 Robison Lecture on Wednesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. in Olin Hall room 168 on the Bradley University campus.

The lecture, entitled "Caught By Surprise: American Journalism and the Globalization of Information," is free and open to the public.

Dvorkin's duties at NPR include receiving, investigating, and responding to queries from the public regarding editorial standards in programming. He also writes an Internet column on NPR Online and presents his views on journalistic issues on-air on NPR programs.

Before his appointment as ombudsman in February 2000, Dvorkin served as NPR's vice president for news and information from 1997 to 2000. As vice president, Dvorkin was responsible for upholding NPR's editorial standards and ensuring the excellence of news and information programming.

Prior to his tenure at NPR, Dvorkin served as chief journalist and managing editor for CBC Radio News and Information, a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He acted as CBC's representative on matters of journalistic policy for listeners and viewers, advocacy groups, and government agencies. He was responsible for all radio network newscasts, as well as current affairs and information programs, for the English CBC Radio Networks.

Dvorkin's background includes special assignments for arts journalism and consultant work with journalism groups in Slovenia, Hungary, and Poland. He was a senior writer and editor for National TV News in Toronto and a producer for the National TV News Parliamentary Bureau in Ottawa. He began his professional career as a sub-editor for CBS News in London.

The Robison Lecturer program was established in memory of Mary Leslie Robison, an educator and journalist for more than 40 years. She was an assistant professor of English at Bradley from 1957 to 1968. In 1953, the Illinois Association of Journalism Teachers honored her with a gold key for meritorious service to scholastic journalism. The Robison Endowment Lectureship is designed to bring to campus distinguished working professionals and educators in print and broadcast journalism.