On Friday afternoon Keith Woods, the vice president for diversity in news and operations for NPR, spoke at the Newhouse school for Multi-Day. Woods used to be the dean of faculty at the Poynter Institute and before that he worked as a sportswriter, news reporter, city editor, editorial writer and columnist at The Times-Picayune. He is also the co-author of The Authentic Voice: The Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity.
During the presentation, Woods discussed the importance of incorporating diversity in a story. He talked about how journalists and storytellers usually tend to stick to stories about themselves and what they know best, but it is important to reach out and really understand the full truth. Woods told the audience about his family to show how he has learned a lot through them because they are so diverse. He has children of many different religions and races, an uncle who is a Jehovah’s Witness, and a gay nephew. Through his family he is able to learn about many different religions and experiences his family has. America is a very diverse country and it is extremely important that journalists are aware of this and how to learn the full story. The truth is not just assumptions or what a journalist thinks, the truth is reaching out to learn everything there is to know about diversity and the story. During his presentation he said a few things that really stuck out to me, “The truth is diverse,” and “You cannot know the story of someone by just looking at them.” These two quotes explain a lot of what he was saying throughout his whole presentation.
I really enjoyed Woods’ presentation and I think it will be very useful information to have throughout school and especially in the future. I have always been very aware of diversity and learning about other cultures, but this made me think about it in a different way and I learned a lot more about it. I also really admired his passion to learn as much as he could about others and their religions and cultures throughout his career.