Guy King and Kachelle Pratcher
Staff Writers
Aspiring journalists with notepads and questions filled the Mississippi e-Center Convention Hall on Sept. 26 ready to learn about the different ways to keep gender, class, race, generational and geographic stereotypes out of the media.
The Maynard Institute for Journalism presentation: ‘Connecting with Diverse Communities,’ featured speaker, Martin G. Reynolds.
Reynolds, an Oakland, Calif. native and co-founder of Jackson Voices, a project of the Maynard Institute, helps minority journalism students through workshops and forums.
Reynolds also serves as the senior editor for community engagement for MediaNews Group’s Bay Area News Group and Digital First Media’s Western Region. He began his career at The Oakland Tribune as a Chips Quinn Scholar intern in 1995 and worked his way through the ranks, serving as editor-in-chief from 2007 to 2011. He was among the lead editors for the “Not Just a Number” project examining youth violence in Oakland, which won the Knight Award for Public Service from the Online News Association in 2006.
Reynolds was also recently named Digital First Media ‘s 2013 Innovator of the Year for his work developing Oakland Voices and serves as an at-large board member of the Associated Press Media Editors.
Reynolds’s presentation focused on the faultlines, the naturally occurring divisions of race in society. He stressed that duty of journalists is to give Americans the truth without bias and advised the future journalists in attendance to avoid the fault lines of gender, class, race, and geographics in seeking the un-fabricated truth.
“The audience will determine the future of news, we have to figure out how to connect with people,” said Reynolds. “Don’t try to be right, try to listen.”
He added: “You must be accessible and reconnect with the community, there are no good stories behind the computer screens,” said Reynolds.
Reynolds ended his presentation with a hands on project in which the students were divided into groups and asked how they would avoid the faultlines of gender, class, race, generation and geographics of the divisive open carry gun law that has been enforced in Mississippi.
Jean Cook, an adjunct instructor and director of Public Relations at JSU said, “I hope students received a better understanding of why it’s important to include all groups (in reporting), everyone can learn about each other.”
Many of the students in attendance stated that Reynolds’s presentation was beneficial to their future journalism careers.
“This was a great workshop and learning about faultlines was interesting, I wish more students would have come,” said Rachel Crutchfield, a senior political science major.
Henry Goss, a sophomore mass communications major from Jackson, Miss. said, “I learned effective tools to enhance my journalism skills In addition, I gained valuable knowledge that will help me to become a better professional.”
