Changing the Narrative: Fighting Hate, Misinformation and Dehumanization in the Media
Presenters
- Jessica Gonzalez
Vice President of Policy and Legal Affairs, National Hispanic Media Coalition
Jessica Gonzalez is the National Hispanic Media Coalition's D.C-based VicePresident of Policy and Legal Affairs. In this capacity, Jessica executes NHMC’s policy goals before the federal agencies and in Congress.
The NHMC is a 25-year-old nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the image of American Latinos as portrayed by the media, increasing employment opportunities for Latinos in all facets of the media industry and advocating for media and telecommunications policies that benefit Latinos and other people of color.
Before joining NHMC, Jessica was a staff attorney and clinical teaching fellow at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Public Representation (IPR), where NHMC was one of her clients. At IPR Jessica also represented other consumer, civil rights and public interest organizations before the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and in the Courts of Appeal.
While in law school, Jessica was a law clerk at the Media Access Project in Washington, D.C, and prior to law school she was a public high school teacher in Los Angeles. Jessica is a LLM degree candidate at Georgetown Law. She earned her J.D. at Southwestern Law School, where she worked on the Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas and the Journal of International Media and Entertainment Law, and her B.A. from Loyola Marymount University. Jessica serves on the Media and Democracy Coalition's Board of Directors.
- Alex Nogales
National Hispanic Media Coalition
Alex Nogales is the president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), a non-profit, civil rights media advocacy organization. NHMC advocates for greater diversity in news reporting, and has filed over 50 petitions with the Federal Communications Commission to deny broadcast licenses to broadcasters who fail to uphold diversity and the public's interest in their programming.
In the past few years, NHMC has emerged as a leader in the fight against hate speech in media. Under Alex's leadership, NHMC has increasingly engaged on media and telecommunications policies on such issues as diversifying media ownership, broadband deployment and adoption, Network Neutrality, and many other issues that affect how Latinos communicate and are perceived in mainstream media.
- Rory O'Connor
Author and filmmaker
Media and democracy are at the center of the work of author, blogger, filmmaker and journalist Rory O’Connor. O’Connor has helped create hundreds of television programs and films, and been executive in charge of two award-winning broadcast newsmagazines, South Africa Now and Rights & Wrongs: Human Rights Television.
O'Connor began working in broadcast journalism at WGBH-TV, while his radio commentary was featured on WBCN-FM. He later produced documentaries at WCVB-TV; was program producer of WGBH's Ten O'clock News; director of the cable program Neighborhood Network News; and segment producer for PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and CBS's 48 Hours.
As a print journalist, O'Connor wrote and edited for the Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, Boston Magazine and The Real Paper, where he was managing editor. His articles have appeared in such national periodicals as The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Vogue, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Newsweek, and others. He co-authored the award-winning books Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology in America and Shock Jocks: Hate Speech & Talk Radio; wrote the forthcoming The Feed Is My Friend: Social Media, Trust and Brands; and posts regularly on his “Media Is A Plural” blog (www.roryoconnor.org), as well as on leading websites like Huffington Post, AlterNet and elsewhere.
A Boston College graduate, O'Connor was an External Fellow at Rutgers University's Walt Whitman Center and Sagan Fellow at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center. His work has received a George Polk Award, a Writer's Guild Award, two Emmys and a George Orwell Award, among others.
- Patrice O'Neill
The Working Group
Patrice O’Neill is co-founder and CEO of the Oakland-based nonprofit strategic media production company The Working Group. She has produced successful national series on PBS for 15 years and led a multi-platform approach that utilizes documentary film, social networking, outreach and organizing efforts to encourage dialogue and spur community action.
The Working Group’s 1995 story of how the town of Billings, Mont., responded to a rash of hate crimes, Not In Our Town, began as a half-hour PBS special and turned into an award-winning documentary series and a national movement that continues to thrive. O'Neill's latest film, Not In Our Town III: Light in the Darkness, is now in production and is scheduled to air on PBS in fall 2011.
O'Neill and her team recently launched NIOT.org, a new social media site that opens new civic engagement possibilities. By focusing on positive stories of action and community cohesion, NIOT.org supports and promotes collaboration – and connects isolated individuals and communities. As media continue to reinvent themselves, O’Neill and her team embrace new technologies and modes of storytelling to engage and activate a more diverse, multi-generational audience and create innovative projects that meet public media's promise of access, outreach and service to underserved communities.
- Favianna Rodriguez
Artist and new media organizer
Favianna Rodriguez is an artist and new media organizer who has helped foster a resurgence in political arts both locally and internationally. Named by Utne magazine as a "leading visionary artist and changemaker,” Favianna is renowned for her cultural media projects dealing with social issues such as war, immigration and globalization, as well as for her leadership in establishing innovative institutions that promote and engage new audiences in arts and activism. In 2009, she co-founded Presente.org, a U.S.-based, nationwide organization dedicated to the political empowerment of Latinos via the Internet and mobile messaging. Favianna travels extensively to consult with organizations interested in using visual communications and new technologies to promote community building and social change.
Video
Audio
- When
- Saturday, April 9, 2:00pm - 3:30pm
- Where
- Waterfront 3
map (pdf) - Track
- Social Justice and Movement Building
"Immigrants have the same impact on this country as a major terrorist attack." All "good patriots" should "go to the border" and "lock and load." "[The Bible] says that if they break into your country, you must cut off their limbs." Speech like this is all too common these days in the mainstream media. At the same time, hate crimes against Latinos and other people of color are at an all-time high. The purpose of this panel is to examine the extent and effects of hate speech in media and to discuss strategies to hold the media accountable for responsible journalism, while at the same time respecting First Amendment freedoms.
