A panel moderated by Dr. Zachary Walton, assistant professor of communication at Bluffton University, will discuss “Being an Audience in an Age of Distraction” at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18, in Bluffton’s Founders Hall. The forum is free and open to the public.

Walton, as moderator, will frame the issue as critical engagement with new communication technologies. The six-member panel will consider how those technologies are shaping people’s experiences and expectations of community spaces and rituals.

The panel will reflect on what it means to be an audience, how audience attentiveness affects the communicative experience and other ideas related to Bluffton’s 2012-13 civic engagement theme, “Virtual Living: Technology’s Impact on Culture and Learning.”

Panelists will also include Dr. Trevor Bechtel, associate professor of religion at Bluffton; Dr. Hans Houshower, Bluffton’s vice president for advancement; Dr. Jason Moyer, assistant professor of communication arts at Malone University and a 2005 Bluffton graduate; and current Bluffton students Brent Schroeder and Kara Marang.