Peter Goodspeed will deliver a keynote address at Brock Days on Saturday, Sept. 22 as part of the Back-to-Class series of workshops, seminars and tours

Brock’s annual homecoming and community celebration kicks off this week.

More than 500 participants are expected to visit campus and the region to take part in Brock Days and Alumni Weekend festivities.

As part of this weekend’s program, Brock alumnus and award-winning journalist Peter Goodspeed will return to his alma mater to deliver a keynote address on Saturday, Sept. 22 as part of the Back-to-Class series of workshops, seminars and tours.

Goodspeed has worked as a foreign correspondent, war reporter and editor throughout a 40-year career in journalism in which he reported from 63 countries and covered 22 conflicts.

Goodspeed as a foreign correspondent in China, 1990

During his presentation, he will talk about his days as a student and the role that Brock played in helping to launch his career. He will also speak to the changes he has seen in journalism over four decades and what is in store for the future of journalism and foreign news coverage.

“Traditional news media are dying and with it the foundation of our democracies are at risk,” says Goodspeed.

“Today it seems too easy to abdicate journalism’s obligation to sort the news. Instead, we simply serve up a slurry of gossip, opinion and ‘infotainment’,” he says. “The Internet makes it easy to do this, because it makes it easy to collect and disperse stories and it creates a false illusion of knowledge.”

However, Goodspeed believes that the challenges and uncertainty we face as a result of our up-to-the-minute 24-hour news cycle world will not last forever.

“I think, journalism will overcome its anxiety about new technologies and the public will, once again demand more from us,” he says.

Goodspeed’s talk takes place from 12:45 to 2 p.m. in Academic South 204.

Goodspeed with British troops in southern Iraq, 2003

Now in its 12th year, Brock Days is a 10-day celebration that takes place over two weekends, from Friday, Sept. 21 to Sunday, Sept. 30.

Weekend highlights include wine and food seminars in Montebello Park hosted by CCOVI; the annual Fine Food, Fine Wine, Fine Art event for foodies and oenophiles; as well as alumni reunions, campus tours and Badger athletic events all weekend long.