UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- One week before the biggest football game of the year, a Penn State faculty member will participate in a panel focusing on football and a broad range of related themes, including commercialism, gender roles, the media, power and violence.

The panel, titled “Unnecessary Roughness: Football as a Reflection of American Culture,” begins at 1 p.m. Jan. 27, and may be found at www.bagnewsnotes.com online. Viewers may discuss the panel using #BagSalon on Twitter.

Marie Hardin, professor and associate dean for undergraduate and graduate education in the College of Communications, will represent Penn State on the panel. Hardin also serves as associate director of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism.

Other members of the panel include Dan Grano, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte; Ken Jarecke, a photojournalist; Tom Oats, an assistant professor at the University of Iowa; and Scott Strazzante, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist for the Chicago Tribune. The webinar will be moderated by Michael Butterworth, an associate professor at Bowling Green State University.

The session is sponsored by BagNews, which brings together the world’s leading academic experts, photojournalists and other informed individuals to better understand how the visual media frames cultural and political events of the day.