i spy candy

“Minorities in the Media: Where do students fit?” was held in Carroll 143 from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. on 11/18/09.

The panelist featured:
-Dr. Trevy McDonald, UNC School of Journalism & Mass Communication
-Dr. Lucila Vargas, UNC School of Journalism & Mass Communication
-Grant Bollmer, UNC Department of Communication Studies
-Sara Gregory, Student, Online managing editor of The Daily Tar Heel Former Print Managing editor of The DTH

Some of the topics discussed were:
1. Do you feel minorities are covered fairly in the media?
2. How do you feel about local coverage of minorities in the media?
3. What is the role of student journalist?

And here are the notes I took during the discussion (the focal points):

1. lack of coverage

-letter to the DTH about the lack of coverage on the step show

-lack of coverage of native americans community

2. racial pop culture branding — the Obama effect

-black men in the age of pres. obama coverage by CNN

-can you take a pop cultural icon like Obama and turn him into a news beat?

3. bad coverage better than no coverage?

-CNN’s Latino in America had some harsh critique saying that it was “sensational and shallow”

4. everyday racism highlighted today

-is it ok to turn an everyday event into a huge news story? (e.g. of Charles Brown)

5. strength of headlines VS sensationalizing with “racially-charged” headlines — having a suggestive headline will draw traffic, but it that fair to use such racially charged headlines then?

-AP News Mt. AIry - 4 Hispanic men shot in Mt. Airy

-“man suspected of fatally shooting four Hispanic men” — does that need to be mentioned in headline if it doesn’t directly relate to incident? How many more eyes/clicks does that story get?

-was fixed by the AP and unable to find the same headline again….

discussion questions

-What is the role of students?

-this idea of diversity curriculum is pretty new in the j-school. (trevy)

-experience and exposure affects their role

-even if you aren’t producing, you are consuming (vargas) “consumer responsibility mentality”

-simply looking at

-Obama bowing to the leaders of other countries is a controversy

-e.g. of a Washington Times editorial blatantly being racist against Obama.

-How do minority based org’s interact with news media?

-How receptive are news ors to criticism that minority groups were covered but just not fairly?

-Minority Groups Beat! - is it wrong to assign writers to cover specific minority groups on regular basis? is forced coverage a solution?

-covering only a specific minority is specialized journliasm

-How can we get students to branch out beyond their comfort zone?