Women in the World Summit
On March 21st, I attended the Women of the world
Summit In Harlem, NY. This three-day summit was geared toward sharing the
stories of women that often go untold but often shape culture and industries as
we know them. Here I attended two seminars that directed related to the
communications industry and how we approach communications at large.
Session #1 – In Conversation with April Ryan.
The first session was a dynamic interview session with April
D. Ryan, white house correspondent. We
all know of the tumultuous relationship between the leader of the free world
and Mrs. Ryan. Throughout his presidential campaign and his current term, the
office of the president has taken a unique approach to communicate their
message.
This nontraditional candidate took to nontraditional mediums
to address the nation, reflect the party in office’s opinions and ridicule them
free press.
Ms. Ryan opened this discussion by explaining the role of
the free press and how it was established to communicate truth to American
citizens amidst an entangled legal system. She then went on to share that since
the transition to the Trump administration the free press has been abused in
two ways.
First, the administration bypasses the free press to make
announcements and declarations, disrupting the credibility of the information
shared. The lack of journalistic due diligence has resulted in a fairly new term
coined “fake news”. Those receiving information can no longer separate
information that has been validated from that which may just be an
opinion.
Secondly, she talked about the advantages and disadvantages
of social media from a governmental communications perspective. The benefits
being, this generation is the most empowered to have a continuous dialogue with
their political leaders. For the first time in history, receivers of
information are also contributors – “and that’s powerful”. (April D. Ryan). The
shortfalls of the social media age, especially in governmental communications,
is that whatever Is posted in previous years, even if a legislator has since
changed their position, can be resurfaced and reframed against them.
She closed her discussion with a beacon call to those who
are receiving information, “Validate, validate, validate… you have the tools to
fact check…so please do”
Session #2 - TELLING WOMEN'S STORIES ON THE BIG AND SMALL SCREEN
The second session, entitled “Telling Women’s Stories On The Big And Small Screen”,
examines the crippling culture of suppressing women’s assault stories in
mainstream media. Although the crowd remained eerily silent as the panel of unpacked this very important topic.
For
20 years, talk about R. Kelly and his alleged relationships have been
circulating in Black communities around the country. A few journalists have
written articles on the subject, but by and large, it remained hidden until the
recent docuseries on the Lifetime network, Surviving R. Kelly brought the
voices of the women involved to national attention. This panel explored the
galvanizing power of television, its impact on the social justice issue of
abuse, and the effect it has had on the women in the series and those behind
the scenes.
The dialogue was led by two powerhouse women. The first person was Salamishah
Tillet, Chair, African American and African Studies and Creative Writing,
Rutgers University and co-founder of A Long Walk Home, a nonprofit that uses
art to help end violence against girls and women.
The second speaker, Aishah Shahidah Simmons is the creator of
#LoveWITHAccountability; and a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.
Together
they talked through mainstream medias responsibility to depict more
uncomfortable stories. The aversion to this is that advertisers are unwilling
to align with riskier or challenging content. The duo pleaded with the decision
makers in the room to tell more relatable coming of age stories for women
because when she feels empowered to be her authentic self no matter what, she
can then empower the world.
Overarchingly
the Women of the World Summit was an amazing experience and has charged me to
bring my full femininity to the table in my industry.
