Before delivering the keynote address for ɫҹ’s 14th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on Jan. 28, 2016, author and MSNBC correspondent Joy-Ann Reid stopped by Franklin Hall to speak with JMC students about her career path and current hot button issues in journalism and mass media.
Reid led a candid discussion about the role of diversity in a newsroom and how journalists can bring their own cultural competencies to stories while remaining objective and fair.
They also discussed how national coverage surrounding the upcoming 2016 presidential election has, in large part, lacked important principles of journalism: telling the true narrative – not just what you want the story to be - and focusing on the why.
“I wish we could cover Donald Trump from the standpoint of what his rise represents because it does represent a real thing that you can only understand if you, as a journalist, bother to read … what actual conservatives are saying,” Reid said.
JMC students also played a key role in the campus-wide Martin Luther King Jr. celebration later that day. Broadcast journalism major Christiana Ford introduced Reid to the audience, and ɫҹ University Independent Films produced a documentary shown as part of the celebration. .
Reid is the author of “Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons and the Racial Divide.” She was formerly the managing editor of TheGrio.com from 2011-2014, a political columnist for The Miami Herald from 2003-2015 and the editor of The Reid Report political blog from 2000-2014.