Media Leaders Share Insights from Trenches
With the media under intense scrutiny, the School of Communication and Media recently called in the experts to provide students and the public firsthand journalism insights.
In April, Willie Geist, host of NBC News’ Sunday Today and co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, was the speaker for the 2018 Terhune Lecture, an annual event that brings the nation’s most influential voices in journalism to campus to speak with the University and general communities.
At a March Colloquium Series event, WNYC Radio host Shumita Basu discussed newscasts, podcasts and everything in between in her presentation “Radio in the Digital Age.”
At the February Colloquium Series, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and veteran journalist Mike Barnicle shared his perspective on “President Trump and the Press.”
In November, Medal of Honor recipient and Vietnam War hero Colonel Jack H. Jacobs, an NBC military analyst, took part in the School’s high-profile Communications Industry Speaker Series to discuss the challenges of “Covering the Military in the Age of Political Divide.”
Against that same backdrop of attacks on media and spread of “fake news” on social networks, the search for truth by journalists matters more than ever before, Bill Ritter, anchor of ABC7 Eyewitness News, told students and faculty when he was honored as the Allen B. DuMont Broadcaster of the Year. Ritter used the opportunity at Montclair State to give voice to challenges facing the news industry today.
“When I first became enthralled and captivated by the possibilities of journalism,” said Ritter, recalling his reporting days during the Vietnam War and Civil Rights movement, “it was a great time to be a reporter, a great time to be searching for the truth… It’s even more important now because the whole world – for searching for the truth and reporting the facts – is under assault like never before.”