WKU Events

The WKU School of Media will present the 2023 John B. Gaines Family Lecture Series,at 7 p.m. April 12 at Jody Richards Hall Auditorium.

In “The Impact of Representation in Media Today,” which looks at the push in media to self-examine how minority communities are covered, three speakers will discuss their own experience of working in the business for decades and the type of problems that arise in community journalism when the news organizations do not reflect their own community.

The speakers are:

• Mará Rose Williams, Assistant Managing Editor for Race & Equity Issues at The Kansas City Star. Williams led the paper’s project in 2020 to examine coverage of Black communities throughout its 100 years.
• Kyndell Harkness, Assistant Managing Editor of Diversity/Community at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Harkness was part of the Pulitzer Prize winning team that covered the protests and lawsuits following the death of George Floyd.
• Rochelle Ritchie, a media and crisis communications expert and writer. Ritchie, a WKU broadcasting graduate, who has been a television reporter and government spokesperson, often appears as a political analyst on Fox News Channel, MSNBC and CNN.