Rotman Documentary Insights presents "Digital Tsunami"

Rotman Documentary Insights presents White Pines Pictures' Digital Tsunami: Big Tech, Big A.I., Big Brother

Following the screening and panel discussion, please join us in the lobby for a reception with light refreshments.

Event Synopsis:

Join the Rotman School of Management for the World Premiere of White Pines Pictures' Digital Tsunami: Big Tech, Big AI, Big Brother, a gripping and timely new documentary that explores the darker side of our digital lives—from social media addiction and surveillance capitalism to the unchecked rise of artificial intelligence. Interweaving powerful commentary from leading thinkers such as Ron Deibert (Citizen Lab, University of Toronto), Sherry Turkle (MIT), Zephyr Teachout (Fordham University), Daron Acemoglu (MIT and 2024 Nobel Laureate in Economics), Douglas Rushkoff (CUNY/Queens College), Margrethe Vestager (European Commission) and Paolo Granata (University of Toronto), the film delivers a wake-up call about the urgent need for regulation and reform. Enriched by pop culture references and anchored in the media ecology theories of Marshall McLuhan, Digital Tsunami challenges viewers to confront how the digital revolution is reshaping society—and what we must do to reclaim our future.

Speakers:

Fred Peabody, Emmy-award winning filmmaker

Phillip Martin, Senior Investigative Journalist, WGBH

Paolo Granata, Associate Professor, University of Toronto

About our Speakers:

Fred Peabody produced, wrote, and directed the Emmy-nominated 2016 feature documentary All Governments Lie and the 2018 feature documentary The Corporate Coup D'etat. The films premiered at TIFF and HOT DOCS respectively, and received high ratings on ARTE, ZDF, and STARZ. All Governments Lie won the Directors Guild (DGC) Allan King Award for Excellence in Documentary.  Fred is an Emmy-winning journalist and filmmaker whose credits include 7 years as producer-director at ABC 20/20 (where he won an Emmy and received 4 Emmy nominations), and 7 years as producer-director on the CBC investigative series The Fifth Estate.

Phillip Martin is Senior Investigative Reporter for GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting and a Massachusetts Broadcast Hall of Fame inductee. His work on social justice has earned multiple prestigious awards, including the 2023 Online Journalism Award for labour trafficking reporting and National Edward R. Murrow Awards in 2022, 2019, and 2014. He was part of NPR's Peabody Award-winning team for their 9/11 coverage and served as NPR's first national race-relations correspondent.

Phillips holds a master's in law and diplomacy from Tufts University's Fletcher School, with studies at Harvard Law School and UC Berkeley. His career includes fellowships at Harvard's Kennedy School, grants from the Pulitzer Center and International Center for Journalists, and a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. Currently, he serves on advisory boards for the Groundtruth Project and Economic Hardship Project, and as an SPJ New England board member.

Paolo Granata is an Associate Professor at St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto. As a leading expert in media ecology – nurtured by the centuries-old tradition of his Alma Mater, the University of Bologna – his research and teaching interests lie broadly in the areas of media ethics, semiotics, print culture, and visual studies.

Over the last 20 years of his academic career in research, teaching, and public engagement, Professor Granata has held positions at the University of Bologna, the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and Turin, and most recently at the University of Toronto, with affiliation in the Department of Italian Studies, the School of Cities, and the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Since 2011, he has been a Marshall McLuhan Centenary Fellow at the Faculty of Information and since 2019 a Senior Fellow at Massey College, Toronto.

Event Logistics:

This event is available to attend IN-PERSON only.

Rotman Events is committed to accessibility for all people. If you have any access needs or if there are any ways we can support your full participation in this session, please email Mandi Gosling [events@rotman.utoronto.ca] no later than 2 weeks in advance of the event and we will be glad to work with you to make the appropriate arrangements.

General Admission: In-Person Ticket Details

• The event will be hosted at Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex Ave. Toronto, ON M5S 1J5). Your registration fee includes a seat in the theatre for the film screening and moderated Q&A and attendance at the reception.

Cancellation/Refund Policy

• Refunds will only be issued for cancellations received in writing NO LATER than 24 hours prior to the event. Please email events@rotman.utoronto.ca for processing.

Questions: events@rotman.utoronto.ca, Mandi Gosling