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For Release: July 11, 2008 CNN Investigates State of Black America Soledad O’Brien Reports Documentaries and Anchors Special Co-Production with EssenceMagazine for Black in AmericaCNN’s groundbreaking Black in America initiative expands this month with five hours of special primetime programming, including two in-depth documentaries and a special co-production with Essence magazine, it was announced today by CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein at the 2008 Television Critics Association Summer Tour in Los Angeles. CNN’s sweeping Black in America coverage launched in April with the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It encompasses a variety of approaches to examining how blacks have fared since then, including three two-hour documentaries, frequent news reports, an online multimedia special section showcasing video exclusives and user-generated content, and a lively 90-minute forum on what lies ahead, featuring notable black figures and co-produced with Essence for television.
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For Release: June 5, 2008
CNN, NABJ Choose College Winner
for CNN’s Black in America Contest
Morehouse Student’s iReport Scores Grand Prize, All-Access Pass to
Essence Music Festival
CNN, together with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), announced that Travers Johnson, a senior from Morehouse College in Atlanta, is the grand prize winner of CNN’s “Campus iReporter” contest. The contest ran in association with a tour of eight historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to promote CNN’s Black in America multiplatform programming initiative.
Johnson won a trip for two to the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans over the Fourth of July weekend for “To Be Young, Gifted and Black in America,” an iReport about whether it is a good time to be young and black in America. His iReport was submitted through www.iReport.com, CNN’s first uncensored, unfiltered, unedited, user-generated community Web site.
More than 11,500 students from eight HBCUs participated in the tour, which included Florida A&M, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina A&T, Hampton University, Howard University and the Atlanta University Center, which includes Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse and Spelman Colleges.
As part of the “Campus iReporter” contest, students from each school shared their firsthand accounts of the black experience through video, photo, audio or text submissions. NABJ chose one “Campus iReporter” from each school to win a digital video camera. Those winners were then eligible to submit additional footage to compete for the grand prize, also chosen by NABJ.
“We congratulate Travers on winning the grand prize for his thoughtful and thought-provoking piece,” said NABJ President Barbara Ciara. “He is a talented young journalist with a promising career in journalism. We also commend the other student participants who gave voice to young African Americans whose perspectives are seldom seen in today’s media landscape.”
Johnson, a Morehouse student originally from Quitman, Texas, said: “I am very excited, honored and humbled to win the Campus iReporter Contest. It was a great experience to participate in CNN’s Black in America Tour.”
The tour included a trailer outfitted with a jumbo television screen, along with video kiosks, where participants submitted more than 350 video responses to a programming-related question via iReport. There were live DJs at each stop, text-message polling, a graffiti wall and electronic polling stations using questions from a CNN/Essence Magazine/Opinion Research Corporation poll, where approximately 250 students submitted their responses. CNN anchor T.J. Holmes and CNN correspondent Chris Lawrence reported live from some of the stops and also spoke with journalism students about their careers in journalism.
CNN.com’s special section for the tour is available at
www.CNN.com/blackinamerica/hbcu and features images from stops on the tour. Forty years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., CNN launched a sweeping on-air and digital initiative, Black in America. The series continues on Wednesday, July 23, and Thursday, July 24, with a pair of two-hour documentaries, The Black Woman & Family and The Black Man reported by anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien. Both programs will premiere at 9 p.m. (ET/PT).
Black in America examines in-depth the often under-reported stories of the African-American experience. This landmark program features six hours of documentaries, a weekly series of reports on CNN/U.S. and CNN International and a multimedia online effort. For more information, please visit CNN.com’s interactive special section at www.CNN.com/blackinamerica.
Johnson’s winning iReport submission is available at
http://www.iReport.com/docs/DOC-20793. iReport.com is a natural progression of the network’s successful iReport initiative, which has generated more than 125,000 video, photo and text submissions to CNN.com since the initiative’s launch in 2006. Many iReports have provided an added dimension to CNN’s on-air and online reports each day.
CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.
For Release: March 24, 2008
CNN to Focus Mammoth Spotlight
on Black Experience in America
Soledad O’Brien Anchors Documentaries, Special Reports for Four Months Beginning on Anniversary of King’s Death
Forty years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., CNN will launch
a sweeping on-air and digital initiative, CNN Presents: Black in America. Breaking new ground in revealing the current state of Black America, this landmark programming features six hours of documentaries, a weekly series of reports that will air on CNN/U.S. and CNN International and appear as part of a multimedia online effort.
The programming, which airs over four months in 2008, focuses on fresh analysis
from new voices about the real lives behind the stereotypes, statistics and identity politics that frequently frame the national dialogue about Black America.
Reported by anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien, Black in America begins with the two-hour premiere of Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination,
a first-person account of what happened on April 4, 1968.
Black in America:
Eyewitness to Murder – The King Assassination,
Thursday, April 3, 9 p.m. (two hours)
In this first installment of CNN’s Black in America series, O’Brien investigates how James Earl Ray, an armed robber and escaped convict, had already spent an uncommon year on the run that included plastic surgery just a month before his path collided with that of the civil rights leader in Memphis, Tenn. Through interviews with witnesses and investigators, O’Brien retraces the steps of King, Ray, the FBI and Memphis police and explores alternative scenarios of who was ultimately responsible for the murder that, for some, represented the end of the American Civil Rights era.
Black in America continues in July with two additional two-hour documentaries that will air on CNN/U.S. and CNN International:
Black in America:
The Black Woman & Family,
Wednesday, July 23, 9 p.m. (two hours)
In this installment of Black in America, O’Brien, examines the unique and varied experiences of black women and families in America. O’Brien looks at the reasons behind the disturbing statistics on single parenthood, disparities between black and white students in the classroom, and the devastating toll of HIV/AIDS on black women. The Black Woman & Family yields insights into black achievements and struggles and perspectives on King’s hopes for progress. The documentary is told through the experiences of the Houston-based Rand family with expert commentary from economist and Bennett College president Julianne Malveaux, Essence magazine editor-in-chief Angela Burt-Murray, Dallas-based preacher and life coach Bishop T.D. Jakes, TV/radio personality Michael Baisden, entrepreneur and activist Russell Simmons, actor Vanessa Williams, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researcher Dr. Camara Jones
and others.
Black in America:
The Black Man,
Thursday, July 24, 9 p.m. (two hours)
Perhaps the most misreported group in America today, black men are often stereotypically depicted in the media as convicts, gang members and absentee fathers. Told through the personal stories of graduates of the 1968 class of Little Rock Central High School, their sons and grandsons, for The Black Man, O’Brien seeks to determine whether life is better for black men now than it was 40 years ago. She reports on the disparities between blacks and whites in educational, career and economic achievement and factors leading to the devastating rates of black male incarceration. Contributing expert analysis are Harvard economist Dr. Roland Fryer, Princeton professor Dr. Devah Pager, journalist/social commentator Ellis Cose; and Georgetown University professor Dr. Michael Eric Dyson; and others. O’Brien reports on successes and dissects myths to explore the state of black men in America today.
As part of the Black in America series, weekly special reports will air between April
and July that investigate topics including parenthood and marital rates among black adults, high rates of HIV/AIDS among African Americans, achievement gaps in education, careers, and even disparities in life expectancy rates between African Americans and the general population. These reports will debut after the world premiere of Eyewitness to Murder: The King Assassination.
“Only CNN could and would undertake a project this comprehensive and ambitious,” said Mark Nelson, vice president and senior executive producer for CNN Productions. “So many passionate journalists have poured themselves into this effort, turning up some surprising storylines and controversial theories about what’s been happening to black people in this country. The stories they will tell will impact all Americans.”
“As we developed this series, it was critical to go beyond what viewers believe and already know to introduce them to the real people behind the headlines that we report every day on our assignments,” O’Brien said.
CNN.com’s interactive special section for Black in America, available at www.CNN.com/blackinamerica, will launch in late March and will feature excerpts from the series and exclusive interviews with eyewitnesses to history. The section also will include timelines, maps and multimedia stories that highlight the ripple effects the King assassination had on the United States.
Bud Bultman and Steve Robinson are the managing editors for Black in America.
Jeffery Reid is an executive producer; James Polk and Elise Zeiger are senior producers for the series; Jen Christensen is a producer. Mark Nelson is the vice president
and senior executive producer for CNN Productions. Black in America was filmed
in high definition.
Soledad O’Brien has reported on human events, politics, natural disasters and war zones from across the nation and around the world. O’Brien was part of the CNN teams that were recognized with a George Foster Peabody Award for the network’s Hurricane Katrina coverage and an Alfred I. DuPont Award for coverage of the Southeast Asian tsunami disaster. She has been named one of the National Urban League’s “Women of Power” and both Essence and Black Enterprise magazines have named O’Brien to their “40 under 40” lists. In April, O'Brien will be the first recipient of the Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award, created in her honor to recognize outstanding catalysts for social change by Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved and Morehouse School of Medicine. The award will recognize her accomplishments, her commitment to cover stories that might otherwise go untold
and her steadfast willingness to be a voice for the voiceless.
CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships
within both television and the digital media.
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