'Black in the Newsroom' Comes to New Jersey

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Press are invited to join us at Montclair State University’s Presentation Hall for a screening of the award-winning Media 2070 documentary Black in the Newsroom.

This 15-minute documentary follows the journey of a talented young journalist who finds herself unfairly targeted and underpaid while fighting to tell Black stories at The Arizona Republic. The film seeks to start a conversation about how the media industry treats Black journalists and what the implications are for the broader community.

WHAT: Black in the Newsroom screening and discussion
WHEN: Thurs., Feb. 16, 6–7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Presentation Hall, School of Communication and Media Building, Montclair State University
HOW: Register here via Eventbrite. 

After the screening, we'll host a panel discussion with one of the filmmakers and a group of journalists, including:

Moderator: Joseph Torres, New York Times bestselling author and advocate at Free Press; co-creator of Media 2070 project
Denise Clay-Murray, journalist, co-host of Philadelphia Hall Monitor
Tennyson Donyea Coleman, statehouse/New Jersey reporter at WHYY and founder of Black In Jersey
Carla Murphy, social-justice journalist and editorial consultant

We’ll talk about issues including pay equity for journalists of color, harms perpetuated by the U.S. media system, and how we envision this system can atone for those injustices and become a just and representative one. 

“As Elizabeth Montgomery bravely shares her story in Black in the Newsroom, we see that the conversation is bigger than issues around diversity and inclusion,” says Collette Watson, vice president of cultural strategy at Free Press and director of the documentary. “Anti-Black racism has been extremely profitable for the U.S. media business since colonial times. And as long as it remains so, there will be generations of people harmed by this toxic system.”