Soledad O’Brien is Alabama’s Next Big Story

I hesitate to use the cliche “timing is everything.”  But, in describing CNN Special Correspondent Soledad O’Brien’s  7 p.m. address tonight at the University of Alabama, the matter of WHEN it is happening makes it a story.

For CNN, O’Brien’s address here comes four days before the worldwide premiere of the next “Black in America” documentary.    “Black in America:Silicon Valley, the New Promised Land” airs this Sunday, Nov. 13.

We are likely to see CNN Special Correspondent Soledad O'Brien build on some of the points from her latest book in tonight's address at University of Alabama.

For the University of Alabama, O’Brien’s visit falls in the same week as a statewide diversity enhancement conference involving administrators, faculty and staff from 12 of the state’s 14 colleges and universities.

Monday’s event was targeted at those responsible for such things as hiring faculty, allocating budgetary resources and improving the overall climate for diversity on our state’s campuses.

Tonight, our nearly 32,000 students will be the target of much of what we expect the former “Today Show” anchor and Harvard graduate to address in her talk entitled “Diversity: On TV, Behind the Scenes and In Our Lives.”

It’s been just over a year since the University of Alabama paid tribute to Autherine Lucy Foster, James Hood and the late Vivian Malone Jones, the three African-American students whose enrollment represented UA’s first steps toward desegregation.

We won’t soon forget the November 3, 2010 dedication of the Malone-Hood Plaza and Autherine Lucy Clock Tower.

But, across the country, Alabama’s been cast in somewhat of a negative spotlight the last few months because of HB 56, a law aimed at curbing illegal immigration in our state.   Governor Robert Bentley now says the law needs to be simplified.

As an Afro Cuban, Soledad O’Brien has brought authenticity to the discussion of the national debate over immigration reform.   Here in Tuscaloosa,  standing room only crowds gathered to discuss her 2008 documentary
“Latino in America”

While the numbers were much smaller for last month’s discussion of “Latino in America 2: In Her Corner,” the passion of the student panel of three Hispanic students who told their stories was just as strong as the central figures in the documentary.

Tonight’s much-anticipated visit by O’Brien allows us to the discussions about race and ethnicity outside of a single classroom and engage an entire campus, which itself has been mired in controversies that remind us that there is work to be done to promote the University as a welcoming environment for everyone.

Additionally, for journalists like myself who are charged with preparing the next generation of media practitioners, O’Brien will shine the light not only on the issues captured with her camera, but behind the camera to see the experience of the producers of these media messages.

It all happens just about 12 hours from now.

It’s Time to Teach Latino in America

Now we understand why it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to staff blog with DAILY posts.  I pledged last Saturday to try posting daily for one week.    Already, since Sunday, two days have passed without a post.

I guess the best thing to do is post on something on which you’re working that day– at least you’re using the blog to augment your already hectic busy day.

Today we’re preparing to teach our unit on Latino in America, which was both a documentary and a new book, both released last October.

Students in my Communication and Diversity course will hold two days of discussions about the book.  Then on the third day, we will screen a 45-minute excerpt from the 4-hour documentary.

Some like  the blog Ponte Al Dia have questioned the real motives in The Time Warner network producing Latino in America, especially after the tactics of former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs.

They called it CNN’s “lame bid for Hispanic audience.”

But, elsewhere I’ve read positive comments from those who felt the October 2009 documentary finally told their story.

Of course, CNN’s microsite tied to its documentary remains live online.

What about the book?

The obvious question is why read the book when you can watch it on TV?

Well, the chapters in the book correspond with the stories in the documentary.

The book was co-written by O’Brien and CNN Senior Producer Rose Marie Arce, who has a background in TV news– having worked at CBS flagship WCBS in New York.

I think it’s beneficial to better understand the issues that are brought out in the stories that the producers depicted in the long-form news presentation.

MY Goals For Reading the book

If I were to identify three goals from an instructor’s vantagepoint, they would be:

1. To see how the printed medium (the book) handles issues that the broadcast or moving images cannot
2. To get behind the camera to see through the eyes of the producer what the INTENT of those who cast the media text (NOTE: In media research, often scholars who analyze a text are not at all concerned with the intent of those who produced it.  They are merely presented in  a scholarly “reading” of the text)
3. To see a structure or framework in the documentary that helps illuminates or communicates diversity in its broadest definition

Those are my broader objectives.