Critical Focus: A Forum on Media Today

Episode #5: Race and Media

April 12, 2007
Live from CCTV Studio
675 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

This episode explores a variety of interconnected issues, including: The effects of marginal and declining minority ownership of media; how racial depictions and stereotypes in the media are changing, and what their affect is on public perception and public discourse; whether American media is doing a better job of giving more media choices and more media voice to different racial groups, and why this matters; and discusses what is the media’s responsibility towards the issue of Race in America.

 

Guests for Episode #5

The panelists for this episode include:

Gloria Tristani 
Gloria Tristani is Of Counsel at the Washington, DC-based law firm of Spiegel & McDiarmid. Ms. Tristani served as an FCC Commissioner from 1997-2001, and was most recently President of the Benton Foundation. She also served as the Managing Director of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, where she advocated for a diversity of ownership and viewpoints, meaningful public interest obligations, and enhanced children’s educational programming.  In addition, Ms. Tristani served for several years on the New Mexico State Corporation Commission, the first woman elected to that commission and its Chair in 1996. In 2002, she was the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in New Mexico.  Ms. Tristani was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with Spanish as her first language.  She holds a JD from the University of New Mexico School of Law, and she received her BA from Barnard College of Columbia University.  Ms. Tristani’s honors have included: twice being named among “100 Influential Hispanics” by Hispanic Business magazine; receiving the Edward R. Roybal Outstanding Public Service Award from the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO); being named to the Minority Media and Television Council’s Hall of Fame; and twice receiving the Presidential Award from the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO).

Mark Lloyd 
Mark Lloyd is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and an affiliated professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. From the fall of 2002 until the summer of 2004, Mr. Lloyd was a Martin Luther King, Jr. visiting scholar at MIT, where he taught communications policy and wrote and conducted research on the relationship between communications policy and strong democratic communities. He also served as the executive director of the Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, a non-profit, non-partisan project he co-founded in 1997 to bring civil rights principles and advocacy to the communications policy debate. Previously, Mr. Lloyd worked as general counsel to the Benton Foundation, and as a communications attorney at Dow, Lohnes & Albertson in Washington, D.C. He also has over a dozen years of experience as a broadcast journalist including work as a reporter and producer at NBC and CNN.  A widely-published author in both popular and academic journals, his book "Prologue to a Farce: Communication and Democracy in America" was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2007. Mr. Lloyd received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his law degree from the Geogetown University Law Center.

Derrick Jackson
Derrick Jackson is an award-winning columnist for the Boston Globe.  He was a 2001 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary and a winner of commentary awards from the National Education Writers Association and the Unity Awards in Media from Lincoln University in Missouri. A Globe columnist since 1988, Mr. Jackson is a five-time winner and 10-time finalist for political and sports commentary from the National Association of Black Journalists. He is a three-time winner of the Sword of Hope commentary award from the New England Division of the American Cancer Society.  Prior to joining the Globe, Mr. Jackson won several awards at Newsday, including the 1985 Columbia University Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City.  He is a 1976 graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and in 1984 served as a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University. He holds honorary degrees from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., Salem State College, and a human rights award from Curry College in Milton, Mass.

Ceasar McDowell
Ceasar McDowell, is Associate Professor of the Practice of Community Development at MIT and Director of the Center for Reflective Community Practice, where he is also Co-Director of the Community Innovation Lab. His interests include the use of mass media in promoting democracy, the education of urban students, the organizing of urban communities, civil rights history, peacemaking and conflict resolution, and testing and test policy. Dr. McDowell has extensive experience in the area of public engagement, and the design and conduct of civic conversations that create opportunities for individuals from minority and poor communities to be included in a cross-generational and cross-racial public discourse. He serves as chairperson of The Algebra Project, was co-founder of The Civil Rights Forum, and served as Senior Researcher for the National Commission on Testing and Public Policy. Dr. McDowell has been an advisor to several national foundations and was a 1991 W. K. Kellogg National Leadership Fellow.

This episode also features relevant highlights from the 2007 National Conference for Media Reform and excerpts from an interview with Leonard Baynes, a professor of law at St. Johns University and nationally recognized communications law scholar specializing in race and media issues.

The panelists for this episode include:

Gloria Tristani 
Gloria Tristani is Of Counsel at the Washington, DC-based law firm of Spiegel & McDiarmid. Ms. Tristani served as an FCC Commissioner from 1997-2001, and was most recently President of the Benton Foundation. She also served as the Managing Director of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, where she advocated for a diversity of ownership and viewpoints, meaningful public interest obligations, and enhanced children’s educational programming.  In addition, Ms. Tristani served for several years on the New Mexico State Corporation Commission, the first woman elected to that commission and its Chair in 1996. In 2002, she was the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in New Mexico.  Ms. Tristani was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with Spanish as her first language.  She holds a JD from the University of New Mexico School of Law, and she received her BA from Barnard College of Columbia University.  Ms. Tristani’s honors have included: twice being named among “100 Influential Hispanics” by Hispanic Business magazine; receiving the Edward R. Roybal Outstanding Public Service Award from the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO); being named to the Minority Media and Television Council’s Hall of Fame; and twice receiving the Presidential Award from the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO).

Mark Lloyd 
Mark Lloyd is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and an affiliated professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. From the fall of 2002 until the summer of 2004, Mr. Lloyd was a Martin Luther King, Jr. visiting scholar at MIT, where he taught communications policy and wrote and conducted research on the relationship between communications policy and strong democratic communities. He also served as the executive director of the Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, a non-profit, non-partisan project he co-founded in 1997 to bring civil rights principles and advocacy to the communications policy debate. Previously, Mr. Lloyd worked as general counsel to the Benton Foundation, and as a communications attorney at Dow, Lohnes & Albertson in Washington, D.C. He also has over a dozen years of experience as a broadcast journalist including work as a reporter and producer at NBC and CNN.  A widely-published author in both popular and academic journals, his book "Prologue to a Farce: Communication and Democracy in America" was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2007. Mr. Lloyd received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his law degree from the Geogetown University Law Center.

Derrick Jackson
Derrick Jackson is an award-winning columnist for the Boston Globe.  He was a 2001 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary and a winner of commentary awards from the National Education Writers Association and the Unity Awards in Media from Lincoln University in Missouri. A Globe columnist since 1988, Mr. Jackson is a five-time winner and 10-time finalist for political and sports commentary from the National Association of Black Journalists. He is a three-time winner of the Sword of Hope commentary award from the New England Division of the American Cancer Society.  Prior to joining the Globe, Mr. Jackson won several awards at Newsday, including the 1985 Columbia University Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City.  He is a 1976 graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and in 1984 served as a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University. He holds honorary degrees from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., Salem State College, and a human rights award from Curry College in Milton, Mass.

Ceasar McDowell
Ceasar McDowell, is Associate Professor of the Practice of Community Development at MIT and Director of the Center for Reflective Community Practice, where he is also Co-Director of the Community Innovation Lab. His interests include the use of mass media in promoting democracy, the education of urban students, the organizing of urban communities, civil rights history, peacemaking and conflict resolution, and testing and test policy. Dr. McDowell has extensive experience in the area of public engagement, and the design and conduct of civic conversations that create opportunities for individuals from minority and poor communities to be included in a cross-generational and cross-racial public discourse. He serves as chairperson of The Algebra Project, was co-founder of The Civil Rights Forum, and served as Senior Researcher for the National Commission on Testing and Public Policy. Dr. McDowell has been an advisor to several national foundations and was a 1991 W. K. Kellogg National Leadership Fellow.

This episode also features relevant highlights from the 2007 National Conference for Media Reform and excerpts from an interview with Leonard Baynes, a professor of law at St. Johns University and nationally recognized communications law scholar specializing in race and media issues.

The panelists for this episode include:

Gloria Tristani 
Gloria Tristani is Of Counsel at the Washington, DC-based law firm of Spiegel & McDiarmid. Ms. Tristani served as an FCC Commissioner from 1997-2001, and was most recently President of the Benton Foundation. She also served as the Managing Director of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, where she advocated for a diversity of ownership and viewpoints, meaningful public interest obligations, and enhanced children’s educational programming.  In addition, Ms. Tristani served for several years on the New Mexico State Corporation Commission, the first woman elected to that commission and its Chair in 1996. In 2002, she was the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in New Mexico.  Ms. Tristani was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with Spanish as her first language.  She holds a JD from the University of New Mexico School of Law, and she received her BA from Barnard College of Columbia University.  Ms. Tristani’s honors have included: twice being named among “100 Influential Hispanics” by Hispanic Business magazine; receiving the Edward R. Roybal Outstanding Public Service Award from the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO); being named to the Minority Media and Television Council’s Hall of Fame; and twice receiving the Presidential Award from the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO).

Mark Lloyd 
Mark Lloyd is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and an affiliated professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. From the fall of 2002 until the summer of 2004, Mr. Lloyd was a Martin Luther King, Jr. visiting scholar at MIT, where he taught communications policy and wrote and conducted research on the relationship between communications policy and strong democratic communities. He also served as the executive director of the Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, a non-profit, non-partisan project he co-founded in 1997 to bring civil rights principles and advocacy to the communications policy debate. Previously, Mr. Lloyd worked as general counsel to the Benton Foundation, and as a communications attorney at Dow, Lohnes & Albertson in Washington, D.C. He also has over a dozen years of experience as a broadcast journalist including work as a reporter and producer at NBC and CNN.  A widely-published author in both popular and academic journals, his book "Prologue to a Farce: Communication and Democracy in America" was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2007. Mr. Lloyd received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his law degree from the Geogetown University Law Center.

Derrick Jackson
Derrick Jackson is an award-winning columnist for the Boston Globe.  He was a 2001 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary and a winner of commentary awards from the National Education Writers Association and the Unity Awards in Media from Lincoln University in Missouri. A Globe columnist since 1988, Mr. Jackson is a five-time winner and 10-time finalist for political and sports commentary from the National Association of Black Journalists. He is a three-time winner of the Sword of Hope commentary award from the New England Division of the American Cancer Society.  Prior to joining the Globe, Mr. Jackson won several awards at Newsday, including the 1985 Columbia University Meyer Berger Award for coverage of New York City.  He is a 1976 graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, and in 1984 served as a Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University. He holds honorary degrees from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., Salem State College, and a human rights award from Curry College in Milton, Mass.

Ceasar McDowell
Ceasar McDowell, is Associate Professor of the Practice of Community Development at MIT and Director of the Center for Reflective Community Practice, where he is also Co-Director of the Community Innovation Lab. His interests include the use of mass media in promoting democracy, the education of urban students, the organizing of urban communities, civil rights history, peacemaking and conflict resolution, and testing and test policy. Dr. McDowell has extensive experience in the area of public engagement, and the design and conduct of civic conversations that create opportunities for individuals from minority and poor communities to be included in a cross-generational and cross-racial public discourse. He serves as chairperson of The Algebra Project, was co-founder of The Civil Rights Forum, and served as Senior Researcher for the National Commission on Testing and Public Policy. Dr. McDowell has been an advisor to several national foundations and was a 1991 W. K. Kellogg National Leadership Fellow.

This episode also features relevant highlights from the 2007 National Conference for Media Reform and excerpts from an interview with Leonard Baynes, a professor of law at St. Johns University and nationally recognized communications law scholar specializing in race and media issues.

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