Journalists from around the globe turned out for the Association of Foreign Correspondents USA inaugural awards and scholarships ceremony at the Roosevelt House on Nov. 4. Hunter College Journalism Program Director Sissel McCarthy kicked off the event with a speech about the growing threat to journalism and journalists here and abroad. “Tonight is an opportunity to celebrate the important work foreign journalists and indeed all journalists are doing around the world. Foreign correspondents, like so many of you here tonight, are on the frontlines in the battle of information to hold those in power accountable,” said McCarthy, who also emceed the event. “According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, in 2018, 56 journalists were killed, 250 jailed and 65 went missing,  making it one of the most dangerous years ever to be a journalist. We also remember tonight the 19 who have been killed already this year, many of them in Mexico, which now is the most deadly country in the world to be a journalist.” Several foreign correspondents echoed these remarks, describing firsthand the risks they have faced in their countries.  

Students in Professor Sissel McCarthy’s MEDIA 211 class learned all about bias, fairness, and balance in the news media from one of the nation’s preeminent scholars on news literacy.

Professor Howard Schneider has been on a crusade to teach students how to think more critically about the news they’re consuming since he founded the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University in 2006. He began his guest lecture at Hunter by asking how many people thought the news media was biased.  Nearly all 100 students in the lecture hall raised their hand, which Schneider expected.

MovieMaker Magazine, “the nation’s leading resource on the art and business of making movies and the world’s most widely read independent film magazine” gave professor Mercado’s recently published book in The Filmmaker’s Eye series, The Language of the Lens, a glowing review: 
“For the new moviemaking generation, The Language of the Lens can serve as a reference point of how some of cinema’s greatest auteurs make use of the lens, as well as a key for how to use the tool. After reading The Language of the Lens, moviemakers will be equipped with the ultimate knowledge to command any lens, from an iPhone to the most expensive glass money can buy”
Their full review can be found in their Summer 2019 issue, available at newsstands everywhere, and at the following link.