The Valley Post will host a discussion called “The Future of the Media in the Valley” in Northampton on October 20 at 7 p.m. The speakers will be Sut Jhally and Alexandra Russell. There will be plenty of time for questions and comments from the public. The moderator will be Eesha Williams. Tea and cookies will be served.

Jhally is professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and founder and director of the Media Education Foundation www.mediaed.org. He is author of "The Codes of Advertising" and other books. Jhally won the Distinguished Teaching Award at UMass. Readers of the Collegian student newspaper voted him "best professor" at UMass Amherst, where there are about 900 professors.

Russell is outreach director at the national media reform group Free Press www.freepress.net in Northampton. She was director of Mass. Voters for Fair Elections. Russell also ran grassroots campaigns with the Public Interest Research Groups www.uspirg.org. She earned her master's degree from Boston University.

Williams is editor of the Valley Post and author of the book "Grassroots Journalism." His coverage of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant won the Vermont Press Association's Mavis Doyle Award for best investigative journalism published in any of the state's daily and weekly newspapers. Williams covered the Valley as staff reporter for Northeast Public Radio.

The event will be at the Media Education Foundation, 60 Masonic St. in downtown Northampton. Admission is $5. All proceeds will benefit the Valley Post.

To reserve a ticket, please click “donate” on any Valley Post page, then send an e-mail from the “contact” page to let us know you’re coming. The deadline for reservations is noon on October 20. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door.