Thursday, October 08, 2009

UMass-Amherst Journalism Professor Teaches Students To Be Culturally Sensitive


UMass-Amherst Journalism Professor Teaches Students To Be Culturally Sensitive: A cursory glance at the courses in Nick McBride's teaching load at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst would suggest his priorities and goals mirror journalism educators everywhere.

Like his colleagues, McBride wants his students to hone their writing skills. He wants them striving for accuracy. And he wants them to be fair and to consider all the sides to any story they report, edit or photograph.

But, unlike many of his counterparts, McBride, an associate professor of journalism, routinely pushes students to consider issues of race and ethnicity and to examine historically marginalized populations in their class assignments. Courses developed and taught by McBride titled “Covering Race” and “Community Journalism” reveal his passion — and insistence — that his students, most of them White, learn how to cover disadvantaged people in their reporting and how to interact with them on a daily basis.