Jeff Sharlet: Revealer contributing editor S. Brent Plate writes, “From stone tablets to scrolls, printing presses to the Internet, artists, journalists, and believers of all stripes have used the advanced technology of their age. However, the question arises as to whether these new media are merely tools, or actually arbiters of religious change itself.” Brent, along with Kaley Middlebrooks Carpenter of Princeton Theological Seminary and Jenna Tiitsman of Auburn Theological Seminary, City University of New York, have organized a day-long panel at the American Academy of Religion to address the question. They’ve taken a smart approach, including not just a journalist (me) and a traditional scholar (Heidi Ann Campbell of Texas A&M, who writes about religion in Second Life), but also a game designer, Tracy Fullerton and one of my favorite contemporary artists, Eddo Stern.

The panel is designed for scholars interested in venturing out of the academy. Journalists interested in taking full advantage of the academy, meanwhile, should attend AAR (details here). I started going to academic conferences years ago as a reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, but much of the work I’ve done for general-audience magazines such as Harper’s and Rolling Stone grew out of what I learned there. I don’t mean that in the abstract sense — you’ll get story ideas at academic conferences, more than you can use, and connections to the scholars who can help you research them. I’ll post a list of panels that may be of interest to generalists in the coming days.