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Journalism students attend UNITY convention in Chicago
Three UW journalism students attended the 2008 UNITY convention July 23-27 in Chicago. UNITY is a coalition of four alliances: the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association. Its mission is to advocate fair and accurate news coverage about people of color, and aggressively challenge the industry to staff its organizations at all levels to reflect the nation's diversity. Below are reflections on the conference from Anusha Ghosh Roy, Erica Metzler and William Kim.
By Anusha Ghosh Roy
Networking, a very unnatural habit, finally came easily to me at UNITY. UNITY is a conference that brings the Hispanic, Asian, African American and Native American journalist associations together for a five-day conference every four years. This year, thousands of minority journalists gathered in the windy city of Chicago.
The first person I talked to at UNITY, who started up a casual chat in line waiting to register, happened to be from the Washington Post. After that, I had dinner with Lori Matsukawa from King 5 News, made contacts at AP, CNN and Northwest Cable News, to name a few.
I incessantly presented myself, promoting my interests to any broadcast news organization where I may want to apply for an internship. This was once again made easy at the job fair where every news organization imaginable was there, crossing newspapers to TV. I seized the chance to have my resume tape critiqued by NBC, CNN and Belo Corporation. This rare privilege gave me insight into what these companies value in a reporter.
Since I was not looking for jobs, my time at UNITY was relatively stress free, especially since I was not on the receiving end of “we have a hiring freeze but give us your resume to file” or “we are hiring internally for those positions.” The uncertain times of the media industry, particularly newspapers, refused to be hidden. But, as a group of journalists should, people were straight up with the facts. The associations are prepping their members to acknowledge the choppy times ahead, encouraging adaptation. However, never is it OK to forsake the mission of UNITY, to increase diversity in newsrooms to reflect the population of America, leading to more accurate and fair news reporting.
In the momentum of adaption, there was an all-day multimedia workshop. There were sessions on web writing and manipulating video for the web. There were panels on foreign reporting in changing times. Right now, multimedia skills are key to being marketable in this industry for print and broadcast. For broadcast journalists, learning to be a one-man band is incredibly important, a trend being picked up by many TV news stations. To be able to film, edit footage, write scripts, complete voiceovers and stand ups are important, since there is no longer a strict divide in responsibilities according to job titles.
My most important find at UNITY was the courage and enthusiasm found at the conference. It was a reality check at UNITY that everything within the industry is not OK. At the same time though, there was a reassurance that there are ways to succeed in journalism; they just might not be traditional.
Right now, more so than ever, it is about survival in journalism. After talking with journalists at the conference, as expected, people are looking to preserve their jobs. Regardless, the spirit of UNITY was incredible. Preserving worthy journalism is a top priority and that is why UNITY was such a success. The thousands of minority journalists at the conference understood that they are key to increasing the quality of journalism and a changing industry will not stop them.
By Erica Metzler
Attending UNITY in Chicago was one of the best experiences of my journalism career. I had never attended a conference like this, so I had no idea what to expect. The UNITY convention was the largest gathering of journalists of color — nearly 10,000 journalists and media executives convened.
UNITY’s mission is to make sure there is accurate news coverage about people of color and recognizes that diversity is very important in the current state of media.
As part of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, I joined with fellow members and others including those in the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association.
The events, sessions and workshops held at UNITY were highly organized and provided a broad range of knowledge about different aspects of journalism. In addition, there was also a career fair and media expo, where more than 100 exhibitors and recruiters were stationed. The career fair was a chance to talk to recruiters, pass out resumes and/or clips, and broadcast tapes. There were recruiters waiting to talk one-on-one with potential employees in order to find out more about them, and it was also a chance for potential employees to network and make contacts.
I think this was one of the most beneficial parts of UNITY that I discovered. Before attending the conference I made a list of potential exhibitors who I wanted to visit and was prepared to present myself and my qualities to the recruiters. I felt that I made a personal connection with some recruiters, more so than others, and hopefully those contacts will lead to jobs in the future. I also plan to e-mail these recruiters every so often so they will not forget who I am — another thing I learned from a session at UNITY.
UNITY offered discussion panels and sessions where top reporters, broadcasters, and media executives would come together to discuss particular topics. These topics ranged from politics, sports, blogging, gender and race. These were also most beneficial to me and I was able to increase my knowledge on these specific subjects. For example, I attended an ESPN Sports Keynote Breakfast discussing the transition from print to multimedia forms of journalism. I listened to ESPN journalists and reporters discuss their personal experiences of this transition. Their words were also inspiring and targeted toward a younger demographic, like myself.
All of the panels had positive, inspirational words for the younger crowd, who are entering today’s media. Yes, print is on the decline, but other forms of multimedia journalism are on the rise, and there are so many opportunities out there awaiting us.
I am glad I put my name out there. I met a lot of people and exchanged business cards with many of them. UNITY gave me an opportunity to do so. It was also gratifying that everyone who attended the conference was there for the same reason — to learn more and get involved more. I am glad that I utilized and maximized my time at UNITY to the fullest and have no regrets.
I am so grateful to have had the experience of attending UNITY, and I suggest any aspiring journalist attend a conference like this one. Overall, I learned and gained so much knowledge about media, how to deal with the changes and how I can succeed in the future.
By William Kim
I didn’t know what to expect going to my first journalism conference, the UNITY: Journalists of Color Convention in Chicago. Nothing I heard or read about UNITY could prepare me for the overwhelming experience of a gathering of thousands of journalists. It was exciting to see so many notable names and faces gathered in one place, such as ESPN columnist J.A. Adande in a panel about broadcast sports journalism and Martin Bashir from ABC News giving a keynote speech at an AAJA banquet.
The overwhelming part was initially not knowing anyone when everyone else around me seemed to be catching up with each other. But that’s what conventions like these are for. The UNITY Convention in one word: networking. Every moment of the conference, whether it was at the convention center, on shuttle buses, or during dinners and parties, was an opportunity to make and update connections. Over four days, I met other journalists, from students to professionals, and learned from their experiences about what it takes to be a journalist in today’s society.
This opportunity to socialize and share experiences with other journalists from all around the country was a way to get a feeling for the state of journalism. Of course there was an overall gloomy disposition about the diminishing advertising revenue and newsroom cutbacks, especially for print. One reporter I talked to was very bitter that her 15 years of print experience was not going to count for much in an era of journalism where multimedia skills are becoming more crucial. This is why much of the focus of the workshops and panel discussions was geared toward developing digital media skills. I had a great opportunity to learn some basics of recording and editing video while following my mentor, Sanjay Bhatt, a Seattle Times reporter, as he worked on a multimedia project for UNITY.
If there is one thing I take away from this conference, it’s that the adage, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” is very true. In that sense, I am glad to have attended this convention for the networking opportunities it gave me.
