{"id":34359,"date":"2022-09-23T14:26:57","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T18:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?post_type=bu-article&p=34359"},"modified":"2022-09-26T12:06:35","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T16:06:35","slug":"a-spotlight-on-black-media","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/a-spotlight-on-black-media\/","title":{"rendered":"A Spotlight on Black Media"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A one-day symposium on Black media will feature expert discussions about moving toward antiracist journalism, cultivating diverse talent, telling Black diaspora stories, using social media and amplifying Black voices. “Black Media: Reflecting on the Past and Reimagining the Future<\/a>” will take place on October 28 at BU\u2019s Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground<\/a>. The event, sponsored by COM, will end with a fireside chat including Kevin Merida (\u201979), executive editor of the Los Angeles Times<\/em>, Paula Madison, a former NBCUniversal executive, and Ibram X. Kendi, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at BU and director and founder of the BU Center for Antiracist Research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The symposium is open to the public and free to attend in person or online with advance registration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For COM, this event has been three years in the making. The idea first crossed the desk of Mariette DiChristina (\u201986) shortly after she assumed the role of dean in 2019.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are not many places where this conversation can happen. There are journalism schools, communication schools, schools that deal with the film and television world\u2014but COM has everything under one umbrella.<\/p>Mark Walton<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Along with COM\u2019s existing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) faculty and staff committee, DiChristina established a DEI Alumni Advisory Board\u2014and she brought the idea to them. Mark Walton (\u201976), who also serves on COM\u2019s Dean\u2019s Advisory Board, suggested taking a broad approach: a symposium bringing all of COM\u2019s disciplines together. \u201cMy job is to take other people\u2019s amazing ideas and support them with a framework,\u201d DiChristina says. \u201cAnd I thought, what a great thing\u2014we\u2019ve never spent a day reflecting on these areas of communication through a Black lens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walton, formerly the president of sales and marketing at One Caribbean Television and now a visiting associate professor of media management at The New School, says COM is in a powerful position to elevate the voices of Black media professionals. \u201cThere are not many places where this conversation can happen,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are journalism schools, communication schools, schools that deal with the film and television world\u2014but COM has everything under one umbrella.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dorothy Davis (\u201976), also a member of the DEI Alumni Advisory Board, sees the event as an important moment in formalizing a Black alumni network. \u201cThe communications field is not easy to navigate. Many people don\u2019t have mentors and are just winging it until they get it right,\u201d she says. There was no such network in the 1970s when she and Walton were in school, says Davis, the president of the Griffith J. Davis Photographs and Archives and Dorothy M. Davis Consulting, which specializes in international development communications. \u201cWe are now creating something that can serve as a foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For DiChristina, the symposium represents a step forward in the college\u2019s ongoing DEI efforts. \u201cOne of the things I\u2019m constantly struck by is that despite our best intentions, we are often siloed in our thinking\u2014based on our upbringing, the communities we grew up in our culture or where we happen to be located,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s important that communication is building bridges and, in fact, that\u2019s baked into COM\u2019s strategy. We\u2019re building understanding for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speakers include Deborah D. Douglas, coeditor in chief of The Emancipator<\/em>; Meghan E. Irons, City Hall bureau chief for the Boston Globe<\/em>; Wesley Lowery, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author; Tina McDuffie, professor of journalism at COM and host of Local USA<\/em> on WGBH World Channel; DeShuna Elisa Spencer, founder and CEO of kweliTV; Tiffany Walden, cofounder and editor in chief of The TRiiBE<\/em>; and others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Registration information<\/a>, a schedule<\/a> and speaker bios<\/a> are available online. Livestream information will be emailed to registrants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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