Webinar | Underserved Audiences, Overlooked Media

Media owned and/or managed by African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans, from Univision to African-American newspapers to tribal news websites, are an important bridge between people who don’t rely on other media sources and university communicators seeking wider audiences. Try as we might, we do not reach everyone who can benefit from the information we share about agriculture and agricultural science. We may be losing a valuable ally in our outreach efforts—media focused on underrepresented communities. Join the ACE Media Relations & Writing Learning Community for a webinar featuring analysis from experts about why we’re missing out on the opportunity to connect with ethnic media and what we can do about it.

Hubert “Hub” Brown is associate dean for research, creativity, international initiatives & diversity associate professor, Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. Brown will become dean of the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications on July 1. Brown has been active nationally in issues of journalism and mass communications education. He is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Bryan Pollard is the associate director and former president of the Native American Journalists Association. He recently completed a John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University, where he studied the value of an Indigenous free press and strategies for increasing press freedoms in Indian Country. Bryan is currently pursuing a master’s in journalism with an emphasis on documentary filmmaking. His first film, A Shelter First, about the homelessness crisis in Northwest Arkansas, was released in October 2018.He is a board member for High Country News, a nonprofit environmental and land use newsmagazine based in Colorado and was instrumental in the development of its Indigenous Affairs desk. Prior to joining NAJA staff, he was the executive editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, the tribal news organization for the Cherokee Nation based in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The Phoenix was the first Native American newspaper originally published in 1828.

Ricardo Vela is program manager for the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources News and Information Outreach in Spanish (NOS). Ricardo is a 33-year broadcast journalism professional. Prior to joining Extension, Ricardo worked for the Chicago Tribune and Univisión in Chicago, IL. He worked as a national news correspondent for Univisión and CNN in Texas and Los Angeles. Ricardo was Univisión’s San Diego main news anchor for 14 years and hosted “Voces Hispanas,” his own morning talk radio show, for seven years. Ricardo served as news director and anchor at Entravisión (a Univisión affiliate) in Palm Springs. He has also worked at Telemundo in El Paso, Texas, both as a correspondent and news anchor and later as news director.As program manager of NOS, Ricardo supervises a team of Spanish-language experts who focus on disseminating news and research regarding agriculture, nutrition, natural resources, and more to Spanish-speaking communities across California.