Journalists for Diversity to Hold Conference at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — UNITY: Journalists for Diversity will hold its third regional conference from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, in the Ferguson Center on The University of Alabama campus.

The event, titled “Empowering the Southern Narrative,” will focus on media literacy, social media, entrepreneurial journalism and discussions on poverty.

Journalists from around the country will participate. UA’s department of journalism, part of the College of Communication and Information Sciences, is hosting the UNITY event.

Speakers include Jennifer Crandall, artist-in-residence at Alabama Media Group; Jennifer Chang, deputy growth editor at Quartz; Willoughby Mariano, investigative reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; and Matt Leavall, project director at Alabama Innovation Engine.

The luncheon plenary, “Small Town Media and Reporting During the Civil Rights Era,” will feature Frye Gaillard, writer-in-residence at the University of South Alabama and winner of the Clarence Cason Award in Nonfiction Writing; S. McEachin “Mac” Otts, author of “Better Than Them, The Unmaking of an Alabama Racist”; and Rebecca Johnson, current editor of the Greensboro Watchman newspaper.

The coalition is bringing the event to UA because of its links to the civil rights movement and because the area is seeing a large demographic shift, said UNITY president Russell Contreras.

“This is the New South, and journalists must understand this transformation,” Contreras said. “We are happy to come to such an important region and hope this sparks more journalists’ organizations to visit.”

The event aims to help journalists discover new tools, said UNITY board member and event chair Tomoko Hosaka.

“News gathering and storytelling are being transformed like never before by technology,” Hosaka said. “We hope to elevate journalists’ skills so they can tell their own communities’ stories in innovative ways.”

Dr. Wilson Lowrey, chair of UA’s journalism department, believes the West Alabama region needs to have an honest discussion on media diversity.

“The South is becoming increasingly complex, demographically, culturally and economically,” Lowrey said. “It’s critical that the way we tell stories about our region reflect that complexity.”

Registration is $35. For details, go to http://unityjournalists.org/event/empowering-southern-narrative/.