Picture 7“What is news now?” The topic, complicated enough on its own, is one Minnesota Independent editor Paul Schmelzer will be addressing tonight at 7 p.m. at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis — but with some limitations. Echoing the quick-hit world of blogs and Twitter, he’s been asked to do a pecha-kucha-style presentation on the topic: 20 slides, with only 20 seconds to explain each. Speeding through the terrain of social media, citizen journalism and radical transparency with him will be fellow panelists Chris Ison, a professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota and 1990 Pulitzer Prize winner, and artist Kathryn Refi. Nora Paul, director of the U’s Institute for New Media Studies, will moderate.

The night, part of the Weisman’s recurring WAM Chatter program, is presented in conjunction with its exhibition Au Courant: Robert Rauschenberg’s Currents, on view through October 4.