ANNUAL CONVENTION CELEBRATES 49 YEARS OF CHANGE MAKING
BY JADA INGLETON
Despite a contentious session featuring former President Donald Trump on the first official day of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) conference in Chicago on July 31, last week’s five-day convening drew thousands of media specialists for a celebration of the beauty and boldness of Black storytelling.
“We, as Black journalists, are in the business of telling the truth about ourselves, which can be challenging in a country that has suppressed the truth about us for its entire existence, and which depends on the suppression of the truth about us to consolidate political power,” said Joy Reid, host of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” in a live panel with NBCU Academy. “For this organization, we need to set a standard, because this is the home of Black journalism, and there should be a very high standard for who we let into this house and for how we do it.”
The yearly convening of Black journalists, which will celebrate 50 years in 2025, connects industry experts and novices through interactive workshops, breakout sessions and presentations that gauge important topics in the journalism community and help develop crucial skills to use in the field.
“Everyone at NABJ is invested in the other folks at NABJ. It’s almost…like we take this responsibility for your success,” said Raschanda Hall, president and founder of Social Pearls, LLC, and media-related representative on the NABJ Board. “It’s all of us trying to help each other shine more so that the industry can move forward, and that we can have better visibility across the board, across different areas of communication from broadcast to print to blogging, to production, really all of it. It’s the accessibility, that’s what makes us different.”
Aside from providing a space for like-minded individuals to receive hands-on experience, NABJ has served a pivotal role in conversations leading to corporations. Randy Buffington, a seven-time NABJ veteran and brand lead for Gallery Media Group, applauds the conference for its communal value and place in opening doors for careers, including throughout his own.
“Every job that I’ve had, and just anything good that happened to me in my career has been off the strength of people looking out at NABJ. I can’t thank the organization enough for where it’s led me in my career,” Buffington said.
He shared that the importance of the convention is also the advocacy of community building. “We need diversity of thought in our newsrooms, in any room, right? It’s as diverse as it gets in that career fair. Lifting up your peers, whether you are a young buck or a seasoned journalist, you need more of that all day long.”
In addition to “enriching his career” through connections with other historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) student journalists, Auzzy Byrdsell, recent graduate of Morehouse College and current Metro Reporter for Boston Globe Media, told the Informer an important takeaway of the conference for him is the representation of Black men in newsrooms, especially within different areas of interest.
“NABJ does a great job of showing young Black men [who] are entering multimedia a great representation of Black men who are doing great investigations, Black men who are covering politics, Black men who are covering other types of stories outside of sports, because we’re needed to tell those stories,” Byrdsell said. “We’re still needed in the sports media industry, but we’re also needed in these other newsrooms…being intentional about incorporating resources and keeping our voice alive in the industry.”
Trymaine Lee, NBC News correspondent, had similar views in response to the role of organizations like NABJ in propelling the Black community forward.
“We can’t rely on anyone else to teach our children. We can’t rely on anyone else to save us. I think now more than ever, we need to come together, as we always have, as a community…and ensure that our stories are being told properly, and that we’re the torch bearers of history,” Lee told The Informer. “We’ve always had to be that way, because there have been forces opposing us from the very beginning, opposing [the] teaching of our history. This is another one of those valleys in our experience in this country.”
NOTE: This article by Jada Ingleton was published in WINDaily BY THE WASHINGTON INFORMER on Tuesday, August 6, 2024
See WINDaily at https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQVxttZPPMbRlNqbMRxRmzZdBjt
