News Release

The Johns Hopkins University Foreign Affairs Symposium will continue its 2006 series with a speech by journalist Chris Matthews at 8 p.m. on Monday, April 3, in Hodson Hall, Room 110, on the university's Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. Matthews's talk, "War and the Media," will focus on the evolving role the media has played in U.S. foreign policy.

"The media has increasingly been changing the public perception of the world and this has ramifications for how the U.S. government both formulates and explains its foreign policy," FAS co-chair Marc Goldwein said.

"Now with U.S. armed forces playing very active roles around the world, the media has been an important messenger between people at home and the troops abroad," said FAS co-chair Adnan Ahmad.

Chris Matthews has covered several of the most important events in the recent past, including the fall of the Berlin wall, the first all-race elections in South Africa, the Good Friday Peace Talks in Northern Ireland, and the funeral of Pope John Paul II. He has hosted "Hardball with Chris Matthews" since 1997, originally on CNBC and now on MSNBC. In addition to his journalistic credits, Matthews has served as a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and has worked as an aide to several congressmen.

"War and the Media" is the fourth of seven events this spring meant to explore recent changes in geopolitics. Other FAS speakers will include former Middle East Special Envoy Dennis Ross and political thinker and Johns Hopkins professor Francis Fukuyama. FAS will also have a panel discussion on Turkish membership in the EU.

Matthews's lecture will begin promptly at 8 p.m. and is free and open to the public. A reception will follow. For more information, visit www.jhu.edu/fas or e-mail fas@jhu.edu.