Janine Jackson, October 2016

Janine Jackson is program director at the media watch group FAIR.org. She is producer and host of the nationally-syndicated radio show CounterSpin.

In a public lecture and a Q&A supper with 40 students/faculty and various meetings with students, Janine Jackson gave pointers on how to be a critical consumer of mainstream news. She urged people to be conscious of language, sourcing (whose voices/viewpoints are included in the story and whose not), as well as possible advertiser or media ownership influence on what’s being reported or not reported. The title of her public lecture was: “Can You Trust Mainstream News Media? Racial and Other Biases.”

Jackson also pointed to reforms in the media structure that could create a more diverse and democratic media system. For all her criticism of mainstream news, she was encouraging toward students pursuing careers in journalism and media.

Janine Jackson is program director at the media watch group FAIR.org (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting). She is producer and host of FAIR’s nationally-syndicated radio show CounterSpin, which is heard locally on WRFI.