Media and Our Present Moment

Yamiche Alcindor, Sewell Chan, and Brooke Gladstone In conversation with Hector Amaya
Wednesday, Sep 9, 2020 | 5:00pm Online Event

Join us via Zoom at 5PM PST:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89554076167?pwd=N1JJcTVvWCtoTzg5cTJxeUFncE5EZz09

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The media is a powerful voice driving our perception of the world. But over the last decade, the political divisions across America have threatened the ability of the media to deliver unbiased news. Further putting into question the role of the media, individuals armed with their smartphones have stepped in to provide some of the most raw, unfiltered stories of our times. As part of ALOUD’s Power and Value series, we welcome three journalists from the fields of newspaper, radio, and television to examine whose voices we can trust: the Los Angeles Times’ Sewell Chan, NPR’s Brooke Gladstone, and PBS NewsHour correspondent Yamiche Alcindor. As we more urgently than ever rely on reporting for updates on COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement, join us for a conversation with these three veteran journalists. How is the media shaping our individual experiences during these historical times?

Yamiche Alcindor

Yamiche Alcindor is the White House correspondent for the PBS NewsHour and a contributor for NBC News and MSNBC. She often tells stories about the intersection of race and politics—ranging from directly questioning President Trump a number of times to chronicling life on the border of the United States and Mexico. Previously, Alcindor worked as a national political reporter for The New York Times and a national breaking news reporter for USA Today. An award-winning journalist, she often appears on a number of shows including Morning Joe, Andrea Mitchell Reports, and Meet the Press with Chuck Todd. A native of Miami, Fla., Alcindor is married to a fellow journalist and is the daughter of Haitian immigrants who met while attending Boston College.

Sewell Chan

Sewell Chan is an American journalist who currently oversees the editorial board and the Op-Ed and Sunday Opinion pages of the Los Angeles Times. Previously, he worked at The New York Times for 14 years in a variety of reporter and editorial positions—most recently as the international news editor in the London office and before then as the deputy editor of the Op-Ed and Sunday sections. Chan was previously a staff writer at The Washington Post and has written for The Wall Street Journal and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Brooke Gladstone

Brooke Gladstone is best known for the …pause…that Bob Garfield inserts before mentioning her name in the credits for On the Media. Among her other accomplishments, she was an NPR Moscow-based reporter, its first media reporter, senior editor of NPR’s All Things Considered, and the senior editor of Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. As the years progress, she grows ever more senior. A recipient of two Peabody Awards, a National Press Club Award, an Overseas Press Club Award and more, she is the author of The Trouble With Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time and The Influencing Machine.

Hector Amaya

Hector Amaya is a professor of communication and Director of USC’s Annenberg School of Communication. He has published dozens of articles on the issues of globalization, Latin American media, comparative media studies, immigration, and Latinx media studies. Amaya has also authored three books: Trafficking: Narcoculture in Mexico and the United States, Citizenship Excess: Latinas/os, Media and the Nation, and Screening Cuba: Film Criticism as Political Performance During the Cold War.

Event image: “Vietnam War protest,” courtesy of the Los Angeles Public Library’s TESSA Digital Collections.

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