The following is a reposting of Johnathan Kindall's review of a day at WomenExplore's lectures on 16th March 2017. It was published on 21st March 2017 in the Daily Free Press, the independent student newspaper at Boston University.
PHOTO BY JOHNATHAN KINDALL/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Stephanie
Leydon speaks Thursday afternoon at the Democracy Center
about how
media acts as an informer and manipulator in today’s society.
WGBH
television and radio reporter Stephanie Leydon met with a group of
Boston residents and students at the Democracy Center in Cambridge
Thursday afternoon to discuss power, problems and importance of
modern media and communication.
WomenExplore,
a longstanding lecture and discussion forum, hosted the talk. The
self-characterized charity with an educational focus was officially
founded as the Theological Opportunities Program at Harvard Divinity
School in 1973, but the origins of the group stretch as far back as
the 19th century.
Every
spring and fall, WomenExplore holds a 10-week lecture series. A
different guest speaker is brought in every week, and the listeners
discuss a topic for nearly two hours. The theme for the Spring 2017
sessions is “From Monologue to Dialogue: Building Community.”
Lindsa
Vallee, of Brookline, has attended WomenExplore meetings for more
than a decade. Vallee, who moderated Leydon’s lecture and
discussion, said she finds every meeting uniquely stimulating.
“The
topics, speakers and discussion keep my brain alive,” Vallee said.
“They keep me thinking and aware of new issues.”
Each
guest lecture is preceded by a “focus talk,” a short presentation
from a member of WomenExplore that opens up the floor and prepares
the minds of the group for the topic at hand.
Barbara
Villandry, from Nashua, New Hampshire, provided the focus for
Leydon’s lecture.
Villandry
reflected on the days of Walter Cronkite and Edward Murrow, and
reminded many of the attendees about a time where it seemed as if the
news could be wholly trusted.
She
voiced her concerns with the current state of the media, going as far
as to draw comparisons between now and the times of Joseph McCarthy
and his Communist witch hunt.
“The
pendulum swings both ways,” Villandry said before giving the floor
to Leydon. “And I hope that we will soon be back to a place where
truth reigns supreme.”
The
event then transitioned into Leydon’s lecture, which was centered
around her recent attention to partisan divisions and the media
following the 2016 presidential election. The title was “The Media:
Informer or Manipulator? The Public: Discerning or Naïve?”
“In
the months since the election it’s been my professional obsession,”
Leydon said to the audience. “I can’t get enough of the divide
story.”
Leydon’s
feature on WGBH, “Greater Bostonians,” often focuses on
individuals and their personal stories. The show’s mission is to
highlight those passionate about social change.
“People
let me into their homes and there’s a human connection,” Leydon
said.
However,
that connection isn’t always easy to make, she said.
“We’ve
moved beyond identity politics, to politics being our identity,”
Leydon said.
She
continued to explain how, when she is working on segments for
“Greater Bostonians,” many of those walls thrown up in defense of
political identity start crumbling.
She
drew on these grounded, everyday stories in her lecture.
One
such story was that of a New Hampshire couple named Ben and Laura.
The two, who had never been particularly active politically, were
faithful Trump supporters in the election.
Leydon
talked and checked in with the couple at multiple points throughout
the election process, and her coverage of real, hardworking and
honest Trump supporters resonated with a lot of her Boston listeners,
some of whom had never met an ardent Trump fan in person.
Leydon
said she wishes the mainstream media would have paid more attention
to smaller stories like this during and after the election. She
characterizes stories like Ben and Laura’s as a “window to our
collective identity.”
She
also said she believes that such a focus would begin to bridge the
gap between the two sides of the political spectrum. She emphasized
the importance of a media-literate public that can recognize
blatantly false news and has the skills necessary to seek out truth.
The
basis for media literacy is critical thinking, she said, but specific
and catered media literacy classes in schools could be a vital step
in the process.
“I
don’t know how we have a discerning public without a media literate
public,” Leydon said.
Vallee
agreed with the necessity of starting a dialogue, which is exactly
what WomenExplore is attempting to do with their lectures and
discussions.
“The
election results tell us that there hasn’t been enough dialogue in
our country,” Vallee said.
Vallee
said she believes that anything that opens up a discussion can create
a more united country.
Leydon
does not plan to stop telling the stories of real, everyday people on
either side of the political divide anytime soon, commenting that
even the discussion following her lecture gave her ideas for new
stories.
“I’m
a journalist,” Leydon said. “When I go out, I have a microphone
and a camera. Sometimes I remember to bring a pen and paper. But most
of all, I have my ears to listen.”
Tags: Barbara
Villandry, Democracy
Center, From
Monologue to Dialogue: Building Community, Greater
Bostonians, Johnathan
D. Kindall, Lindsa
Vallee, Stephanie
Leydon, The
Media: Informer or Manipulator? The Public: Discerning or
Naïve?,Theological
Opportunities Program, WomenExplore
