School of Media

The School of Journalism & Broadcasting is excited to offer a photographic and interactive exhibition of photographs that promises to change the way you look at the world.

Living On A Dollar A Day: The Lives and Faces of the World’s Poor, is a powerful and extraordinary series of photographs and profiles by Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Renée C. Byer, whose work illuminates the human faces of people who live in extreme poverty around the world. Traveling to 10 countries on four continents, Byer sought out individuals and families on the brink of survival – living on about one U.S. dollar each day.

The people in Byer’s compelling profiles share their hardships, their joys, and their dreams for the future with her. Often with little hope of changing their own destiny, they dream of something better for their children. In her searing and tender images, accompanied by stories shared by people whose trust she gained, Byer gives voice to those who would not otherwise be heard.

The exhibit will be available beginning Thursday, Feb. 16, through Friday, April 28.

Gallery Hours for the Exhibit

Sundays - 3 to 9 p.m.

Mondays through Thursdays - 9 a.m to 9 pm.

Fridays - 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Joel Simon, executive director of the international nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists, will speak at Western Kentucky University’s School of Journalism & Broadcasting on April 3 at 7 p.m. in Mass Media & Technology Hall (MMTH) auditorium.

Simon will deliver the 13^th annual John B. Gaines Family Lecture Series, which has hosted lectures by professional journalists at WKU since 2004. Simon, who has worked as a journalist throughout Latin American and lead CPJ for 11 years, will speak about the non-profit’s work to advocate for journalists around the world and more recent efforts examining threats to freedom of the press in the U.S. His talk, “Trump & The Truth: Defending Press Freedom at Home & Abroad,” will put the U.S. in an international context, examining parallels and patterns the organization has seen around the globe.

Simon has written about press freedom issues for The New York Times, Slate, World Policy Journal, the Columbia Journalism Review and numerous other publications. His most recent book, “The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom,” was published in November 2014. Simon worked for many years as a freelance journalist in Latin America, where he covered the Guatemalan civil war and the Chiapas conflict in Mexico, among other issues. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Stanford University.   

The free lecture is open to students and the public. It is a swipeable event for students.