Advocacy Vs. Objectivity: Black Journalists Talk About If There Should Be A Line Between The Two In The Media On Crucial Subjects

Join us for a virtual event on Wednesday, February 23, 6-7:30 PM for Advocacy Vs. Objectivity: Black Journalists Talk About If There Should Be A Line Between The Two In The Media On Crucial Subjects. 

The Black Press in the United States started out as a voice for the voiceless, advocating for African Americans in the areas of voting rights, safety from white violence like lynching and economic justice and independence. Many organizations – Black, Native American, LGBTQ+, environmental, liberal and conservative – still practice advocacy journalism today, but many mainstream organizations say they want reporters who are objective in their reporting no matter what their background. Should Black reporters cling to this “so-called” objectivity in the face of issues like voting suppression, white nationalism and police violence or is there a line between advocacy and objectivity that reporters should strive for?

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Panel: 

Jesse J. Holland, SMPA Assistant Professor, C-SPAN Washington Journal host, moderator

Keith Woods, NPR Chief Diversity Officer

Darlene Superville, AP White House reporter

Nicki Mayo, Black Women Unmuted Editor

Philip Lewis, HuffPost Senior Front Page Editor

Jesse J. Holland is an assistant professor in the School of Media & Public Affairs at the George Washington University and the Saturday host of Washington Journal on C-SPAN. He is also a longtime journalist and the award-winning author of The Invisibles: African American Slaves Inside the White House; Black Men Built The Capitol: Discovering African American History in and Around Washington, D.C; Black Panther: Who is The Black Panther?; and the editor of Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda.

Keith Woods is Chief Diversity Officer at NPR. He leads and supports NPR's efforts to bring greater diversity to its audience, content and staffing while creating a workplace where a diverse staff can grow and thrive. He also heads up the editorial Training team, which helps strengthen and support the work of journalists by training them in leadership, storytelling, reporting, editing, diversity, audio production and digital strategy. Before joining NPR, Woods was Dean of Faculty of The Poynter Institute, a school for journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla. He is a former sports writer, news reporter, city editor, editorial writer and columnist, working his way through those jobs in16 years at the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He served as editor of the anthology series Best Newspaper Writing and chaired two Pulitzer Prize juries and is co-author of “The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity.” He holds degrees from Dillard University and Tulane University in his hometown of New Orleans.

Darlene Superville is a veteran White House reporter for The Associated Press. Ms. Superville has been part of a team of reporters providing coverage of the White House for AP members across the U.S. and around the world since 2009, when Barack Obama became the nation’s first black president. Before the White House assignment, Ms. Superville was a supervisor on the AP’s national political desk during the 2008 presidential election. She also performed that role during the 2012, 2004 and 2000 election cycles. Her portfolio on the White House beat included coverage of first ladies Michelle Obama and Melania Trump. Ms. Superville also covered Congress and spent several years on an enterprise writing team, in addition to other assignments. A native New Yorker, she has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from New York University.

Nicki Mayo is the multimedia journalist behind Nicki Mayo News, LLC, an audio/video company specializing in video, podcasts and social media campaign production for small businesses, civic groups and faith-based organizations. The Baltimore native and Syracuse University alumna is the Editor-at-large for Black Women Unmuted as well as a journalist for TV One’s “Fatal Attraction,” “Justice By Any Means” and “Thou Shalt Not.” A standout news manager, Nicki has worked to launch several news orgs including: YNN Buffalo (now known as Spectrum Buffalo), E.W. Scripps’ The List” and Crofton Patch. Nicki has also worked as a reporter, producer and social media manager for multiple news orgs including: Associated Press Radio Network, WYPR-FM 88.1, The Philadelphia Tribune,  WAMU-FM 88.5, 1430 WNAV, Crofton Patch, WJHL-TV 11, SNN News 6, CTV 76 (Prince George’s County, Md.), WJZ-TV 13, BET News and Public Affairs and WAER-FM 88.3 (NPR). 

Philip Lewis is a journalist from Detroit, Michigan. He is currently a senior front page editor at HuffPost. Prior to his role at HuffPost, he was a staff writer and programming editor at the Millennial-based digital news outlet Mic in New York City. His journalism career began in 2015, as an editorial fellow for The Huffington Post in Washington, DC. He is the co-author of Schoolhouse Wreck: The Betsy DeVos story, an inside look into the life of the U.S. Secretary of Education. He was also a 2017 recipient of the prestigious Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship.