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Events
The annual State of the Media panel discussion,
sponsored by the College’s communications program, gives
students and the local community the opportunity to
discuss timely issues with local, regional, and national
media representatives. This year’s topic, “Media and
Diversity,” offered a glimpse into the challenges that
reporters, writers, producers and other media
representatives face in providing balanced and unbiased
news coverage.
“Diversity is the reason why I got into this business,”
said Edwina Kaikai, assistant managing editor of
suburban living at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette daily
newspaper. “I grew up as a child of the 60’s and
witnessed civil rights marches, burnings, and black
folks and white folks not getting along. I realized that
we aren’t really that different, and that if we knew
more about each other, then maybe the tensions that
we saw displayed on TV and in news stories would
be lessened.”
She noted that as an editor, she’s had to fight some
lengthy—and exasperating—battles. “Our newspaper
runs a society column that showcases who’s doing what
and who’s raising money for a good cause. I’ve been to
some of the events that we feature and the people that
attend them aren’t all white, but you’d never know that
from seeing the coverage of the events week in and
week out. I had to talk to [the staff] for probably a year
to get them to take pictures and talk to people that don’t
look like reporters. Now you more regularly see African
Americans attending the symphony, along with
Hispanics and Asians. You’ll see that we are a diverse
community doing all types of things.”
Vince Sims, weekend anchor and reporter for FOX
Channel 11 News in Pittsburgh, faced similar uphill
battles when he began questioning coverage of news
stories at his station. “We started talking more about
diversity at my station because I brought a new
perspective as a black male. I’ve tried to have open
dialogue at all the stations I’ve worked at because, as a
black person, you feel like the media shows negative
images about the black community.”
Continues Sims, “I started to question this [negative
images] practice. Now, if we’re going to talk about a
suspect, we need to have at least six or seven descriptive
items from the police department before we can say who
they are looking for, not just ‘a black male.’ I really
praise my station for doing this because they’re really
taking a stance.”
Panelists for this year’s event included: John
Cater, anchor and reporter at KDKA-TV News
in Pittsburgh, PA; Olivia Cunningham, executive
news producer at WTAJ-TV in Altoona, PA;
Kaikai; Beth Robinson, vice president of broadcast
operations at CBS Radio Network and Westwood
One Radio; Elizabeth Seymour, Penn State
Altoona communications instructor who also
worked for several years as a media professional
in Egypt; and Sims.
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