Good afternoon everyone. Im happy to assert of the council for over a decade. We are happy to take off our final and convention 15 session. We come here to culminate with this session before we have our banquet in a few hours. Before we begin this session, i would like to introduce the cofounder and president who will kickoff the unconvention. In the name of god most gracious and merciful. Thank you for joining us. I hope you plan on staying with us for the banquet tonight. It is our 15th annual. We started these events shortly go. But we are growing. You are going to see tonight hopefully how the impact has become a National Voice on some of these issues. Tonight in today this convention has the theme of celebrating our shared humanity. What a timely topic, because it is our shared humanity that will help us overcome the ideology of hate. Whether that hate is manifest in the form of International Terrorism or in the form of xenophobia and hate crimes domestically. We need to have a united front. People have been asking us since in bernadino, first they asked what is it in your religion that causes people to do things like what happened in San Bernardino . Our answer is our religion is telling us to do exactly the opposite. Our religion is about mercy and compassion and justice. Our religion is about, if you save a life, you have saved all of humanity. Is as ifll someone, it you have killed all of humanity. Apparently they are not reading the same text that we are reading. Or it is not being processed. Were actually the nemesis to terrorism. The antidote to terrorism. We can empower mainstream communities to overcome and prevail the ideology. They ask is, why are you not speaking out. Muslimgo to all of the it is obvious we are speaking out. But we cannot make this problem disappear. What is required is civic engagement. We demonstrate our work to the american public. Standardbearer of our religion and we see the front exactly like that. There are french operation like every religious group has. Withimportantly, they see our partnership with Law Enforcement that we are the of peopleshe problem insecurities and fears in america. Our problem with Law Enforcement means we will work on the we will work on the ideological problem. They will work on the criminal investigation of the problem. And we work handinhand in , partnership. That partnership will help us overcome the challenge. Us theproud to have with chief of the lapd. And i see other people from the l. A. Share of department. And, the department of homeland security, they are here to say to american muslims this is the home for all people. Muslim, christian, jew, christian, buddhist. They are here to protect us. Fromare here to protect us anyone who is trying to harm us. The way to overcome the problems of xenophobia is to not be intimidated by shows of the violence. You cannot terrorize us. They want to influence audiences by terrorizing people. We say we will be the turning point in defeating that radical ideology. They want to influence audience by terrorizing people. When we have the stamina and strength of resolve to say you will not terrorize us, they will become frustrated. We were just commenting on terrorism of backlash over and over again. The answer to that is yes and no. Yes there is friction. On, there is heavy weight us. At the same time, this is our light. This is our moment. We are here to change the narrative of the islam in america. That islam in america is part of the pluralism that contributes to civilization where we can and rich society with our contribution. That america will enrich the with muslim input. And so the terrorism that is , coming from the disintegration of the middle east cannot control, but we can control the environment here. Ist is why this panel important. How do we get to our message out so we control our own narrative . With that i thank you and candid back over for the discussion. Edina said it, she started it 10 years ago when she was 10 years old crash we are glad to have her. Shes been on radio and television into the wonderful job. Thank you. We are gathered here today as a combination of a series of event that was held all over california for the past couple of months. When we stepped back and thought about the 15th anniversary, where we gather together to talk about the issues of today, to take stock of where we have been for the year, in and to think of the possibilities that lay ahead, one of the things it came first and foremost into our minds was the change in the nature of the communities. 15 years ago at annual conventions and Convention Halls this was the norm. The space where muslims came together to meet, exchange ideas, go shopping and bazaars, meet old friends in and new ones. Today, conventions are not the way to go. You do not have to go to a Convention Center to interact with the movers and shakers shaping the issues that are impacting our daily lives. You can go instead online. Of places. To a lot we decided to turn our convention on its head. Out to would go instead communities to bridge the gap and listen to communities and also bring to them at the voices that they may not be hearing in their local areas. Thevoices of change leading change we would like to see in public policy, public image media andough hollywood and through new innovative projects both online and in person. They are changing the nature not just in our community, so you you may be seeing the pictures on the screen of some of the five Convention Sent sessions in california. The first one took place of the Islamic Center of san diego valley. We featured upandcoming voices who are leading change in this and innovative areas. The second session we had was at the Islamic Center california where we looked at the question homelessness. The mayor declared a war on homelessness this year and declared he would and homelessness here in los angeles this year. We are close to homelessness because it is one of our core values to help people who need to get back on their feet. Our first session was held and what we did there was a lets be honest forum. We brought together an attorney and a young leader to talk about the taboo issues that do not get discussed in our communities very often. Audience filled with muslim young people who had a great deal in common with social issues and challenges they are facing. A fantastic discussion about everything from relationships and dating to our scriptures to how we make moral decisions and a host of other things. Then we moved to Orange County where we considered muslims on screen. We ask the question, is it getting any better . That is part of what we come to today. What we had there was up and coming up muslims, some of them very well established i should say, to give us a firsthand account of whether things are Getting Better and where the opportunity for change are. A fascinating session. We wrapped it up in west los angeles. We talked about learning lessons through the lens of communities based by marginalization. Including the mormon, catholic, and jewish communities. The lessons we gained there are more valuable than ever particularly considering the events of this week. Era,session is called, new new media. Opportunities for change. There could not be a more appropriate time for us to consider the meaning of this. When we came up with it, the new aero we had in mind was certainly not this one today. But certainly, we are all facing a new era because of what took place in San Bernardino. The intersection of new media, old media, virtual media, and others i have probably not heard of yet, are changing the landscape of what it takes to be an dev citizen. Ian active citizen. The American Muslim Community is changing. But since you are new media challenging old media whether its print newspaper or Television Television network. Networks. Totoday, i am really pleased be able to introduce you to a fantastic panel who will share with you personal insights from their longer careers where they at the leading edge of some of these very questions. You have their bios and the programs are not going to read them in detail. I want to introduce the panelists and jump right into our conversation. To my immediate right to we have senior viceis president of entertainment diversity and communications at Cbs Television. [applause] she has been a longstanding partner with impact. You have heard about our Young Leaders in a hollywood where we are encouraging young people to pursue careers in this arena. Cbs has been a regular stop and an amazing place. We are really happy to have with us may get in, who is one of the deputy managing editors with the los angeles times. It certainly could not be a busier newsday so we are grateful she peeled herself away way to be with us here today. Malehen we have the only on the panel. Which is a nice change. No stranger to this community, he grew up in Southern California and has been a leading new media since before social media even existed. Of a dot ofounder internet startups that started organizing online in in unexpected way. With then he served state department as a Senior Adviser and helped create a program called generation change young sociald entrepreneurs around the world to lead change in their societies. He has since come and started a startup incubator for muslim entrepreneurs. The wayu for coming all from washington, d. C. To be with us. [applause] we are pleased to have an intimate conversation with the brief time that we have. I also want to mention that this is being recorded by cspan and layer later this month hopefully. Please keep an eye out for that. Finally, we are joined by viewers online through periscope. We will need getting questions from our viewers online hopefully. We also ask that you share questions throughout this discussion. Thepe we will start off discussion, but i hope we will at least alternate. The card will be coming around, but we will also ask you to tweet questions. All you need to do is use the 15, so you can do it that way or on cards, whichever you prefer. Please, this conversation is yours. Im just here to kick it off. With that, i turned to her panelists. With all that is going on, were talking about an intersection between old media and new media. Megan and tiffany, you both sit in old media, in the sense of working with a Television News network and one of the largest print news publications in the united states, if not the world. And you have been a pioneer of looking at new media. Start out with is a few minutes from each of you about your broad observations the landscape has changed during your own career. Falling intodia this, and is it real change that we are seeing . Or is it more noise than substance . As opposed to old, i think we are seasoned. Absolutely. Ive been with cbs for 17 years now. Has it changed . Absolutely. Sense ofally, and the social media, obviously. I look into the crowd right now ,nd i see a lot of hands because everyone is on a device. It is almost an extension of our hands. It definitely has changed. Everything is also so immediate and fast. Issue presswould releases, it would take it while. We used typewriters a while ago, and now we are on computers, but everything i would say right now is much more immediate and regardless of it is factually accurate. Sometimes, it doesnt matter if it is true, so many times in media, someone wants to be first. Its a beast that needs to be fed. Like, oh, we have to wait until the 6 00 news or the 11 00 news. I think it is almost the first thing that you look at, the first thing that you check. You cant even watch a film any longer without seeing the screen. I wantto tweet about it, to facebook, i want to tell everyone. I think that is the other thing that has changed remarkably since i started me business i am in. In the has started business i am in. Exponentially. I look out into the primary now i see a lot of or had. Is an immediacy that never used to exist. That goes both ways. Days, you would publish the newspaper, the way you would hear or interact with letters told be just the editor, or even when i was first starting out at the Washington Post a long time ago, they still wrote down messages on a piece of paper and you had to go to the operator to get that message. Now, where i think the new landscape can be exciting is that you can talk to people more directly. You can also find out more about people. But yes, speed is an issue, so you have to make sure that you are accurate. It is good to be first that you are accurate. This week has shown that, sorting through what is true with not true, what is rumored, what is responsible, sensitivity to the repercussions of making a mistake, or overstating or understanding information is a challenge, as is some of the interaction you get. Story from, every the San Bernardino case, we have to make sure it is premoderated, which means we have to be sure of what comments we are going to get, so there is a difference between conversation and hate speech. It just kind of elites what you are trying to respond report responsibly. I remember finding myself in Silicon Valley in the 90s surrounded by this revolution. I remember those people were involved of this idea of this new medium being the one that replaces the old medium. Saying, theis medium was the message, and they used that really as a battleground against traditional media. They wanted to replace it. I think those people do not realize what they were writing on, because it was not just one revolution. It started with multimedia, then it went to the internet and blogs, then it went to social media. After revolution after revolution. I think by the time we come all still trying to grapple with what that means, its just that the internet favors extreme speech. Thats something that we have to its not a level playing field. For example, when people talk about extreme speech versus moderate speech, they have a leg up. Have gonention spans to tweet length, so how do you convey bits of ideas in small pieces of information . We used to call that poetry, actually. Attention spans have gotten so small. , its hardernalism to do that. But what you are finding also is, what are people tweeting . They are posting articles, traditional stuff they used to bash. Of 10 or 15rse years, they have devalued into nothing. They dont want to pay for it. It actually constitutes the content that drives billion dollar valuations of companies. This is the big paradox. Now you are starting to see, as people are trying to figure out how to manage this new medium, you are finding solid journalism coming back, even things like buzz feed, people are starting traditionalore longform journalism again. I feel like it is coming full circle. That we are still in the middle of that revolution. People think we have encountered all of the turbulence. I guarantee you that is not the case now. I think what we need to do is go back to basics. People are really starting to ask ourselves, maybe the medium is not the message, maybe we have to start going back to what is truly moving people. This has now been democratized, where people can tell stories in the tweets. This has been the year of have tags. Of hashtags. We just started down this journey, and collectively as a society, i dont know where we will end up, but i know it will end in a place where we do truly understand each other and know each other better. Itht now, it is hard because is hostility. It is a horrible place to be if you are a woman, if you are somebody people are not familiar with, very difficult if you are a muslim, but i think these things will pass as we mature, as we figure out how to balance this out. As the majority of us realize the opportunity that we have to , i amt on these spaces hopeful. One thing i would like to say, a lot of times, i think when we talk about negative comments or negativity wins, i feel that people are 10 feet tall behind a device. Behind a computer, behind a phone, whatever it is. You dont have to physically be aware of the ramifications of talking facetoface. Another thing when we talk about negativity sometimes winning, not all the time, when you ask someone, how are you doing . They say you know what, im doing great. No one ever asks how great. Its one of those things where, oh, how are you doing . , wehroat hurts and im sick can talk about that all over and over again, similar to what happens online. That Misery Loves Company very easily. Thank you. One of the things that has changed is the meaning of time. So the urgency of now, particularly in breaking news situations. It has certainly impacted decisionmaking. Megan,to start with you, to think about how decisionmaking has 10 has to wear now there is a minute by minute news cycle, particularly where information , anding contributed online how that is impacting decisionmaking at the los angeles times, perhaps even about what constitutes a good source these days, so that we prevent speculation where possible and make good decisions. Biture, i can talk a little about what happened on morning. Wednesdayinterestingly enough, the first sign that something was amiss in San Bernardino was a tweet the Fire Department sent out, saying they were responding to a shooting that had up to 20 victims. He way it works in most newsrooms now, we have people constantly monitoring social media, which might be the first time you hear something. You might hear something incorrect, but you followup. The other night, the Stone Temple Pilots singer was found dead. The first indication of that was from dave navarro. You hear it, and you have to investigate. I thought, could that number be right . I was in my office, i got up and walked to the floor, and we started sending people out. We had confirmed that the fire source of the the information. The Police Scanner is not always again, it is just like social media, kind of more of a tip sheet then it is something you would report directly off of. We sentobably probably five reporters heading to downtown heading to San Bernardino from downtown los angeles. That what happens is, this is actually a good example. The l. A. Times, like many news , really are trying to figure out how to operate in this e