For COMM 2010, all the students are doing blogs about the media and society so here goes!

This week at school there has been many MLK Commemoration speeches, discussions, and presentations, and I attended the panel discussion about civil rights and the media. When I think of the term civil rights, the issue of race automatically comes to my mind. At the panel discussion yesterday, Albert Jones said that RACE IS NOT THE POINT. He quoted Dr. King's speech and told us that the point really is to look at people for who they are individually. He also was talking about the newspaper he founded, Diversity Times, and he was saying it works because people appreciate diversity. I was thinking about the last presidential election and that at one point, one of the candidates was black, one was LDS, and one a woman. The media ate that up, and the citizens did too. David Scott said that it's our obligation to allow people to do and say what they think, and then minorities can be brought into a new light so that everyone will have more understanding, respect, and tolerance. Civil rights will always be an issue, but obviously times are changing, and hopefully the media will play a positive role in Obama's goal to have "a nation united in purpose."