LOS ANGELES, California – Pioneering African-American journalist Dorothy Butler Gilliam, the first Black woman reporter at The Washington Post, shared words of wisdom with Washington Informer Editor D. Kevin McNeir during a recent week of training, seminars and intensive conversations sponsored by the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.
“I traveled to Los Angeles Oct. 15 – 18, joining several dozen colleagues at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where speakers like Gilliam spoke about the challenges they faced in the past and the work that remains for today’s minorities in the media,” McNeir noted in a post on his Facebook page.
The Washington Informer Editor added: “While America and its citizens are more diverse than ever before, the newsrooms representing them are still overwhelmingly white. In today’s political climate, the need to amplify a wide range of perspectives is of critical importance. The Institute and its partners believe diversity in the newsroom is the future of digital media. To support this ideal, the Maynard 200, a fellowship program, has undertaken the vitally important goal to train 200 diverse journalists in the next five years, focusing on three tracks: entrepreneurship, leadership and storytelling, the track for which I have been selected. Over the next year, I will curate stories from Black families who, like mine, have faced the ravaging effects of Alzheimer’s – in my case, my recently-deceased mother.”
According to Wikipedia, “The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (MIJE) is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California, emphasizing diversity in journalism. The Maynard Institute is dedicated to training journalists of color and providing accurate representation of minorities in the news media.
“Founded in 1977, the Maynard Institute initially began as a volunteer project of nine working journalists. The project soon progressed into a leading organization devoted to helping the nation’s news media reflect diversity in staffing, content and business operations. Currently, the Institute has graduated over a thousand students.
“The Institute was renamed in 1993 in honour of co-founder Robert C. Maynard. His daughter, Dori J. Maynard, has taken over as the President and CEO of the organization.”
