Kim Fox noticed one very striking thing about a recent panel at a conference on the future of student media: A speaking lineup of mostly white males.
“Why were there so few women? Why were there so few people of color?,” Fox, an associate professor of practice with The American University in Cairo, wrote on the All Digitocracy blog. “If we’re talking about the future of student media, based on the census and college enrollments, it will not be predominantly white men as reflected by the Future of Student Media’s selection of presenters.”
As Fox pointed out, journalism schools are filled with a wider array of students from different backgrounds and cultures, yet many do little to acknowledge and talk about diversity. In our #EdShift chat on April 19, we’ll talk about how to go about building and starting a conversation about diversity in journalism education. Join us Tuesday, starting at 1 p.m. Eastern time/Noon Central/10 a.m. Pacific.
The chat, which you can find by searching for the #EdShift Twitter hashtag, will be moderated by Stacy Forster of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Other guests will include UW-Madison’s Katy Culver, Patty Loew and Sue Robinson, Michelle Johnson of NABJ and Boston University, Michael Bugeja of Iowa State University and more.
Here is a Storify of the conversation.