In San Jose, California, on one of the most diverse university campuses in the nation,
our Mass Communication 105: Diversity & Lifestyles in Media class
enables students from diverse life experiences and world cultures to study and discuss,
respectfully and with candor, this and other societal concerns as part of our academic mission.

        

We believe, to be a truly meaningful and valuable public service for global community
needs today and tomorrow, today's media students and future career
professionals are much better served if they were educated and grounded in
a more practical and insightful understanding of the lifelong challenges people face in
the "real world." Many expensive media efforts fall short or fail because the visually creative
packaging of some media messages come across as too safe, predictable or simplistic.
To better attract or inspire public interest you must demonstrate your knowledge and
appreciation of where the public is coming from and what it is up against daily.
Diversity issues rarely talked about still have great impact on individual decision-making.
Being willing to identify, face and address those concerns with informed suggestions
helpful ideas for improving constructive interaction between diverse communities
can prove to be a huge economic bonanza for anyone with intellectual
skill, courage and compassion to try.

 

The well publicized incident between Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley
 triggered not only very powerful outcries across the country. Literally, for millions of people
of color it brought to the surface some very painful personal memories of very unpleasant
 life experiences with authorities. It also touched and fired up millions of Americans who hold the
police and their tough dangerous work in high regard. Yet as the story unfolded over time,
media focused more on the outcries of both sides, and framed the beers at the the
White House as a "summit" of intractable adversaries. The heavy lifting, nerve-wracking
option of digging deeper and exploring, in some depth the history and realities for both sides
was avoided or left to some other day that somehow never seems to come in America.

  
      Walter Cronkite died in July, 2009        1960s TV showed civil rights marchers attacked by police dogs.

Yet there was a day, not too long ago in modern American media history, 
when many journalists saw their work as a duty and noble calling. They spoke forcefully about
many painful truths and showed evidence of it unapologetically. Did that time-honored
tradition and valuable service end when media people like Walter Cronkite
stopped being hired by today's media?

What inspired people like him was the U.S. Constitution which still enables our free press
to help set the agenda for public discourse of important and timely concerns,
no matter how distasteful the issues are. Quality journalism education still teaches this
is our lawfully guaranteed responsibility to this society. Our nation's founders clearly prioritized
checks and balances, not stockholder profit margins. What a colossal wasteland
our growing media would become without standard bearers determined to remind our
nation and our bosses to focus on the greater needs of the people.
Big money and prestige came to Cronkite and his advertisers because they kept
the priorities straight.

So why do the people and the media so consistently avoid meaningful discussions of race
and diversity in our society? With all the new advances in media technology eagerly used and
showcased during the historic 2008 presidential election, from multiple interactive and social
networking web sites, to television, radio, newspaper and magazine promotions for
public input through texting and "Twittering," we really have no excuse today. We also
leave ourselves wide open to charges of becoming professional cowards who
have forgotten the many tough challenges we had to overcome just to have
what we enjoy and take for granted in the United States today.

Could there bean even better country in our future if we collectively stop trying to run away
from discussions of race or other issues of diversity?
 

       
 
In MCOM 105, we will explore provocative diversity and media questions by
researching the answers and asking professional experts in media fields...

 Why doesn't the media, on all levels and in all platforms, make a more conscientious
professional commitment to face and address diversity issues like it does with
politics, economic and public policy concerns?

 Why does it barely use and devote its influential resources to developing
safe and substantive continuing opportunities for insightful and candid
dialog on diversity issues? 

Why can't the media, which is today so heavily focused on bottom line revenues,
see the untapped financial rewards from developing bold innovative methods for
consistently and carefully tap into historically sensitive and festering social concerns
with the goal of helping reduce community tensions built up by
decades and generations of anger, mistrust and neglect?

If America in 2008 could do what so many have long thought impossible, and elect
an African-American as President of the United States, why doesn't the media today try
to go beyond the easy and offer more than simplistic gesture of cultural inclusion?
At this unique moment in time, why not more aggressively tap into public interest
and desire for real change as American society evolves in the 21st Century?

- Professor Bob Rucker
MCOM 105 Instructor & Former CNN Correspondent

 

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