2021 BEA On-Location

In 2020, the race issue was the one thing that managed to shift the news media’s focus away from a once-in-a-century worldwide pandemic. Indeed, racial prejudice is one issue that has, in fact, been with us since before the last Pandemic. The race riots of the early 1900s pre-date the Spanish Flu of 1918. They led to the birth of organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which began in 1909 by a multicultural group of individuals determined to address the senseless murders of people of color. In similar fashion, a multicultural group of individuals is needed to facilitate learning about race in multiple instructional settings within the journalism and mass communication arena today.

As controversial as stories and statements about race may be, it is equally as complicated and confusing for instructors to determine the best way to deliver instruction on this particular type of diversity. Faculty in journalism and mass communication bear a heavy burden to “get it right” when they discuss race and racism in the classroom. Not only do students deal with their own development in understanding race and racism, they will also be preparers of messages for others who consume media. This panel addresses the several eminent aspects to teaching race in journalism and mass communication education based on their contributions to the edited volume Teaching Race: Struggles, Strategies, and Scholarship for the Mass Communication classroom, which will be released in August.