Award winning journalist and anchor Soledad O’Brien will speak to students Wednesday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. in the Ferguson Center Ballroom. O’Brien’s talk, “Diversity: On TV, Behind the Scenes and In Our Lives,” will touch on her experiences as a multi-racial professional working in the journalism field.
“[My hopes are] that people will attempt to understand Soledad as an individual, that she is a multi-cultural, multi-racial individual and understand her story, her reporting style and disparities that exist in America,” said Lowell Davis, assistant dean of students.
“To talk and have discussion with students about those I think is good and fantastic. We need to have hard conversations with students on campus, and I don’t know if we necessarily do enough of that. We need to give students honest answers.”
O’Brien is well known for her award-winning “In America” documentaries. Journalism professor George Daniels has done work with O’Brien on the series in the past. Daniels has helped to organize viewings and discussions on installments of “Black in America” and “Latino in America.” One of his classes also did a Skype interview with O’Brien.
“The idea of having her on our campus to have some discussion about not only diversity in the projects she’s producing, but in the journalism field, I think is outstanding,” Daniels said. One of the partners hosting the event is Capstone Conversations, whose goal is to bring all colleges and students together through conversation and nationally acclaimed speakers twice a school year.
“After Cornel West came to campus, we decided the University of Alabama needed to take some efforts to bring people of his caliber to campus on a regular basis or at least more frequently,” Davis said.
All students, faculty and staff are encouraged to attend the event that focuses on an important part of American culture. Daniels said the event brings someone to an environment that has had issues with addressing racial and ethnic diversity, while providing the opportunity to interact with someone who’s experienced it first hand.
“[People should come] because they need to hear from the horse’s mouth why an Afro-Cuban named Soledad O’Brien is the face of an unprecedented effort to bring issues of race, ethnicity and other kinds of diversity, the untold stories to air,” Daniels said.
“I think often times students don’t understand the importance of going to hear someone who has expertise in a field,” Davis said. “I think to hear her story, to hear how she became a journalist on CNN, to understand why she reports what she reports and why she selects her topics for her documentaries is important for students to understand and listen to.”
O’Brien has worked for the network since 2003 according to cnn.com. She has also been an anchor for NBC News and MSNBC. O’Brien’s new documentary and latest installment of the Black in America series, “The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley,” will air on CNN Nov. 13 at 7 p.m.
