As Pittsburgh marches forward with bright ideas, new projects and self-driving cars, huge gulfs in opportunity persist between white and black residents.
As media, we cover this divide, but we’re not detached from the issue and have a choice to either be part of the solution or stay with the status quo. This involves everyday decisions such as who is quoted in a story and how they’re portrayed, along with larger issues like the diversity of newsrooms that are supposed to hold leaders and institutions accountable for inequality.
To raise awareness, the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation and Point Park University’s Center for Media Innovation are hosting an important discussion Sept. 21 on newsroom diversity and coverage of race.
PublicSource reporter Jeffrey Benzing will discuss our recent project on unsolved murders and the importance of context when looking at the impact of violence on Pittsburgh’s black communities.
The panel will also feature Kristen Doerschner, assistant managing editor at the Beaver County Times, Rod Doss, editor and publisher of the New Pittsburgh Courier and Scott Trabandt, managing editor at WPXI. Former KDKA-TV reporter Harold Hayes will moderate.
Washington Post reporters Keith Alexander and Wesley Lowery will discuss their Pulitzer Prize-winning series on police shootings.
Because of their work, an accurate count of police shootings of citizens finally exists. Their series examined racial disparities in shootings and showed how badly the federal government had handled or rather mishandled reporting of these deadly incidents.
Space is limited, so RSVP now.
