Notes on Charlayne Hunter-Gault's presentation

I don't expect anyone to read this, however I am attending this for my Journalism 101 class which served as my motivation for creating this blog. It may read kind of choppy, but will hopefully be informative to anyone truly interested.  Charlayne Hunter-Gault is a Peabody and Emmy winning journalist and was one of the first two African-American students admitted to the University of Georgia. She has worked for the New York Times, PBS, New Yorker, among others.

The title of her presentation is "New News Out Of Africa," she has worked as a South African correspondent for various news outlets in recent years.

Notes Begin:

Media coverage has contributed to negative image of Africa-

display images of violence, "people" are white; "the people" are black

New news- news that is of current value, can be immediately used by citizens

She made a joke about the Obama-Deval Patrick "plagiarism" controversy while introducing her own words about how Africa can progress in terms of education and sustainability

Peer Review Mechanism: 26 African states have signed up, 70% of African population

Congo has a newly elected government that has emerged after 40 yrs. of war, only elected women leader in Africa, government is not perfect, signs of corruption

Almost wasn't allowed into a Black Panthers convention because the worked for "the man" (New York Times) but was allowed after she promised to write about it truthfully

It is in the national interest of America for Africa to succeed, large supplies of platinum, diamonds, gold, manganese, cobalt, oil

Traveled to Darfur with a group called "The Elders" including Nelson Mandella's wife

For every young man infected, 3 women are HIV positive

A question asked how education has changed in Africa after apartheid, Gault responded that it was similar to the end end of slavery in American South, public schools "became black" and were neglected while white students went to private schools

Some schools have made strides, but unequal distribution of resources has had a lasting effect that will take time to repair

She mentioned that some of the criticism Oprah received over sexual harassment in her school was illegitimate, sexual harassment is rampant all over South Africa

Younger people have "the space to dream," education allows for ambition

A question asked how she felt about economic injustices in the post-Civil Rights movement era, she said if she could answer that questio she would be out there running with Barack and Hillary (it was well delivered and very funny)

In response to a question I could not hear, she mentioned that a lot of people get their values from their faith (uh-oh... this is where she starts to lose me a little as long as she doesn't made too large of generalizations) but said that these values helped her while she was under scrutiny as a student at UGA

"You don't have to be a Christian, you don't have to be religious, but you have to have faith in something."