Department of Mass Media hosts “See Me” series at Rose Theater

The Department of Mass Media welcomed two SEMO professors and two SEMO students to sit as panelists for the second annual “See Me” series event in Rose Theater.

The “See Me” series introduced the Ken Burns 2012 documentary “The Central Park Five” about the wrong convictions of five teenager Black and Latino boys over the rape and assualt of a white Central Park female jogger back in 1989.

Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana and Yusef Salaam became known as the Central Park Five after being wrongfully convicted of brutally assaulting and raping a white female jogger. After serving time in jail, all five were proven innocent and released.

SEMO Mass Media professor Pam Parry brought the “See Me” series to SEMO. Parry said she wanted to show the documentary to SEMO students and faculty to have important conversations about representation and diversity.

“It means we are really serious about this thing called identity, representation, and diversity,” Parry said. “And the See Me series is just one of the many things we do to show that.”

The four SEMO panelists for the “See Me” series were Director of Jazz Studies Joseph Jefferson, Political Science professor Hamner Hill, Public Relations senior Kennedy Hanner, and Multimedia Journalism senior Jowairia Khalid.

Mass Media professor Jasmine Evans moderated as panelists answered questions about the documentary and took questions from the audience.

Most of the questions were focused on the media’s responsibility to report accuracy when reporting on cases like the Central Park assault.

Political Science professor Hamner Hill said the media is much more different today than it was back in 1989 when the story was first reported.

“We didn’t have much in the way of cable news back then,” Hill said. “The diversity of opinion that you get today on the net did not exist.”

After discussing their reactions after watching the Ken Burns documentary, Director of Jazz Studies Joseph Jefferson said he wasn’t surprised about how the series portrayed Black men.

“It is chilling to watch even after all these years, but my first initial thought goes to my own kids,” Jefferson said. “I started thinking about how I can be there to protect them from things like this happening to them.”

SEMO students can watch the Ken Burns documentary for free through Kent Library using SEMO’s streaming service, Kanopy.