Journalists of Civil Rights Era and Today to Assess Role of Media in Civil Conflict, Communicating with Conflicting Segments
University of Richmond will host accomplished journalists to assess the role of media in civil conflict and the evolution of the role since the Civil Rights Movement.
Contested Spaces: Race, Media, and Journalism will be held on campus Nov. 9 by the journalism department as a part of the School of Arts & Sciences themed programming, Contested Spaces: Race, Nation, & Conflict.
The event aims to reflect on the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Report, a 1968 report tasked by President Lyndon Johnson that addressed the media and its role in instigating or mitigating civil conflict after a summer of race riots around the country the year before. Following the report, there was a call for more diversity in newsrooms in order for the media to be able to better communicate between conflicting segments of society.
“The themes of the report remain as relevant as ever,” said Shahan Mufti, journalism professor and panel moderator. “From a journalistic perspective, revisiting the report and applying it to the current political moment is a fruitful, much needed, exercise.”
Event details:
Panel One
12:30 –2 p.m.
Jepson Hall, Room 118
Prominent African American journalists who joined newsrooms directly following the Kerner Report’s recommendations to increase diversity in newsrooms will discuss the climate of the newsroom and their experiences in it in the 1960s.
Panelists include:
Maureen Bunyan, former news anchor, WTOP, Washington, D.C.
Paul Delaney, former reporter, The New York Times
Askia Muhammad, former editor-in-chief, Muhammad Speaks
Reception
5:30 – 7 p.m.
Weinstein Hall, Brown-Alley Room
Panel Two
7 – 8:30 p.m.
Jepson Hall, Room 118
Journalists and media personalities who are Muslim or writing about Muslims in post-9/11 America will assess the evolution of the news media in productive engagement in civil conflict over the decades.
Panelists include:
Wajahat Ali, contributing op-ed writer, The New York Times
Hannah Allam, national reporter for BuzzFeed News
Malika Bilal, Al-Jazeera English
Carmel Delshad, editor and reporter at WAMU, Washington, DC
Contested Spaces: Race, Media, and Journalism is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
# # #