Presenter(s): Jaden Gill
Faculty Mentor(s): Charlie Butler
Oral Session 2 CQ
With each passing day social justice issues become more and more prevalent in the United States. With these issues comes the challenge of spreading awareness of injustice and inequality within our society. Media and all that it entails provides a base for spreading awareness, finding a voice, and using that voice to speak up for issues that need resolving. Members of the School of Journalism and Communication’s Media and Social Action ARC combine their passion for social justice with their interest in media to create a platform for students to speak up about societal problems such as homelessness, hunger, safety, race, and many more.
In second first year as an ARC we have had several social justice advocates and journalists visit the ARC and speak to us about their work. They come to tell us about their passions, experiences, and how they tell stories. We had a sit down talk with Bethany Grace Howe, a transgender graduate student in the SOJC who was the subject of a Register-Guard profile. We met with Michelle Matassa Flores, editor of the Seattle Times, to discuss how her newspaper has covered the metoo movement. We heard the stories of Rev, Peter Do and how his immigration story from the 1980s mirros many of the immigration stories of today. Through these meeting we were able to peer into the lives of people who often face adversity in our society. In addition we have volunteered at Food For Lane County filling food boxes earmarked for the neediest in our community. We’ve toured KEZI TV to get a taste of the professional storytelling world. And we have taken field trips to some of Oregon’s natural wonders to get a better understanding of the state we live in and environmental challenges it faces.
We have created a website where we publish pieces that highlight the stories we’ve seen. All members of the ARC contribute to the website in an area of their choosing, whether it be writing copy, taking pictures, making videos, or designing layouts. In addition to the website we support and promote our activities on our Instagram account, also run by students in the ARC.
All around campus are people whose voices could be of value and may have the ability to inspire action in others. By finding these people and telling their stories we hope to spark interest and provoke movement towards greater equality among students at the University of Oregon, and hopefully providing a contribution to solving issues that spread across the country.