Maynard wins $1.2 million grant
By Michelle K. Massie
Unity 99 Convention Online Staff

The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education announced today that it will use a $1.2 million grant from the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation to expand diversity education services for the news media.

"It's very exciting," said Dori J. Maynard, Director of Communications for the Maynard Institute at Unity '99. "We're going to get to intensify our efforts. the grant is going to help us accelerate the changes necessary for news media to reflect a multicultural America [in content, staffing and business operations]."

The three-year grant will assist the institute in creating and expanding three programs - Reality Checks, Fault Lines and editing training. Reality Checks is an in-house auditing program that includes content analysis kits, workshops and services that help news organizations measure how well they reflect the communities they serve.

Fault Lines encompasses five prisms through which individuals view the world: race, gender, generation, geography and class. According to Maynard, these categories enable the media to frame coverage and place it in proper context.

The editing program works in conjunction with universities across the country to extend editing training for print, television and new media journalists, producers and students.