By Teresa Mioli
In continuation of its initiatives to help journalists interested in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in newsrooms and journalism in Latin America, the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas will host the Second Latin American Conference on Diversity in Journalism. The DEI program is sponsored by Google News Initiative.
Registration for the conference, which will be held virtually and in Spanish, is free. Sign up today for the event, which will take place on Sept. 9 and 10.
“We see that many changes are happening in Latin America – politically, socially, economically – and it’s important to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in what we’re doing,” said Mariana Alvarado, conference coordinator and Mexican journalist. “Latin America is extremely diverse and we must work so that journalism is more equitable, more fair and represents all the communities that make up Latin America.”
Alvarado said this conference “seeks to give continuity to the conversation we’ve been holding to promote the issue of diversity in Latin America.”
The first Latin American Conference on Diversity in Journalism was held in March 2021. It attracted more than 2,000 Latin American journalists and focused on four topics: gender perspective, sexual orientation, racial and ethnic issues, and disability.
This September, the conversation will go more in-depth on DEI, featuring panels and presentations on Indigenous and Afro-descendant populations in Latin America; sexual diversity; migration; and new narratives, media and initiatives that promote DEI in Latin American journalism.
Alvarado said there is a lack of understanding and coverage of these topics in media outlets, but a lot of interest in learning more.
The panel topics for the Second Latin American Conference on Diversity in Journalism were shaped by feedback the Knight Center received from participants of various DEI courses, surveys and training sessions that the Center has carried out with Google News Initiative since early 2021, Alvarado said.
“We are adapting the topics to the needs we have been detecting in the year and a half that we have been working on the initiative to promote diversity, both in news coverage and in Latin American newsrooms,” she explained.
“We are grateful for the generous support of Google News Initiative to this Knight Center program to promote diversity, equity and inclusion among journalists and media organizations in Latin America. GNI and its lead in Latin America, Juan Manuel Lucero, have been inspirational and we are already seeing the impact of this program around the region,” said professor Rosental Alves, Knight Center’s founder and director. “We have also been very lucky to have Mariana Alvarado and other Latin America journalists so dedicated to our courses, publications and this conference.”
The Second Latin American Conference on Diversity in Journalism is open to all journalists and communicators interested in promoting diversity in newsrooms and news coverage. Registration is free and attendees will be able to request a certificate of participation, as long as they attend the four main sessions of the conference.
This second conference is part of a long line of activities from the Knight Center and Google News Initiative to encourage the spread and awareness of DEI in Latin American journalism.
It began with the MOOC, “Diversity in the news and in newsrooms,” taught by Peruvian journalist Marco Avilés in January 2021. Almost 2,000 people from Latin America took this Spanish-language course and it’s now available as a self-directed course and can be taken anytime, from anywhere in the world.
Then, the First Latin American Conference on Diversity in Journalism was held in Spanish from March 26-27, 2021. All video recordings from the conference are available on YouTube.
On July 17, 2021, the Knight Center announced the publication of the e-book “Diversity in Latin American Journalism.” It features articles by 16 journalists from seven countries on how to make newsrooms and news coverage more inclusive. The ebook, which is in Spanish, can be downloaded for free on JournalismCourses.org.
After the publication of the e-book, the Knight Center surveyed more than 400 Latin American journalists, editors, media executives and journalism students and professors from 15 countries on topics concerning diversity for newsrooms in order to prepare for a second online course on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
The second online course, “How to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in Latin American journalism,”was held in Spanish in February and March of this year. It attracted more than 500 participants from 30 countries and is now available as a self-directed course. It can be taken at any time for free (no registration needed).
In addition to that online course, Alvarado and the instructors carried out training sessions on DEI with newsrooms in Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina.
And now, the Second Latin American Conference on Diversity in Journalism will continue that work.
“Latin America has made some progress in its newsrooms in terms of taking these issues into account and including them in its news coverage,” Alvarado said. “But we see that there is still a great need to continue including or to continue to promote this agenda.”
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