Multimedia coverage will make following General Conference easy April 20, 2004 By United Methodist News Service Following
the action of the United Methodist Church’s top lawmaking body will be
as easy as logging on to a computer. The denomination’s communications
agency is offering full coverage in three languages and through a
variety of media—print, video and audio. The place to go is www.gc2004.org,
the official Web site of the 2004 General Conference. The site, managed
by United Methodist Communications, already offers a wealth of features
and background news stories on the assembly, which convenes April
27-May 7 in Pittsburgh. United
Methodist News Service will post reports to the site as quickly as
possible after each major action, in addition to offering feature
stories and daily wrap-ups. Coverage will include video reports from the
news service’s UMTV unit, audio segments and radio-ready items, as well
as still photographs. Free e-mail subscriptions to the print stories
will be available through the Web site. Visitors
to the site will also experience the sights and sounds of General
Conference through audio and video streaming. Key moments, such as the
opening worship, the delivery of the episcopal and laity addresses, and
the Service For Those Who Stayed, will be streamed live, along with all
of the daily worship services. See the General Conference schedule at
the site for details. Through its multicultural desks at General Conference, UMNS will report news of specific interest to:
· African Americans, provided by Linda Green, a UMNS news writer.
· Koreans
and Korean Americans, provided by the Rev. Sang Yean Cho, director of
Korean Resources at United Methodist Communications.
· Native
Americans, provided by Ray Buckley, director of the Native People’s
Communications Office at United Methodist Communications.
· Hispanics and Latinos, provided by the Rev. Julio Gomez, a veteran of five General Conferences. InfoServ,
the free information service provided by United Methodist
Communications, will be staffing General Conference and responding to
questions by e-mail and phone. The toll-free number is (800) 251-8140;
e-mail is infoserv@umcom.org.
(UMNS, however, will not be able to respond to e-mail messages or calls
from the public during General Conference.) Recorded news summaries
will be available 24 hours a day in English, Spanish and Korean. News media can contact Tim Tanton at (615)742-5470 Nashville, Tenn or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Korean News
