The Center on Media and Society

The Center on Media and Society at the University of Massachusetts Boston was created in April 2004 as a resource for the university, the community, and the professional worlds of journalism and politics. As part of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, the Center complements and enhances academic courses and research. It also serves an important role in the University's public mission, contributing to the diverse communities from which its students come, to the greater New England area, and to the practice of journalism around the world. The Center supports the highest standards of professional and academic practice and encourages engagement in civic life.

The Center has two major projects: The Ethnic Media Project, the David Nyhan Student Journalism Award. The centerpiece of our work with the Ethnic Media Project is The New England Ethnic Newswire, also known as NEWz - New England's Ethnic Newswire.

NEWz, the New England Ethnic News, is the culmination of four years of work by the Center on Media and Society at UMass Boston. The Center, which is part of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, was founded in April 2004 as a university-community partnership which supports best practice journalism, trains students about journalism and politics, offers workshops, public debates and newsmaker briefings, sponsors awards and research, and seeks to promote understanding across ethnic divides.

The Ethnic Media Project’s founding leaders were Ellen Hume, Bill Forry, Hiteshkumar Hathi, Henry Rafael and Yawu Miller. Today the project is run by a core group of ethnic media partners who are shaping its programs and direction, including the creation of NEWz. Participants include media from the African, African-American, Armenian, Brazilian, Chinese, Haitian, Indian, Irish, Latino, Polish, Russian, and other ethnic groups of New England. If you wish to join the project as a participating ethnic media partner, please contact Frank Herron, chief editor of the site and director of the Center on Media and Society.

The Ethnic Media Project was inspired by New America Media, and we have worked closely with that nonprofit organization on numerous projects, including a 2008 national research survey ethnic media and the 2006 New America Media awards (dubbed the ethnic “Pulitzer Prizes”), the national Ethnic Media Expo at Columbia University in June 2005 and other projects.

All aspects of the project are done on a nonprofit basis and participation is usually free of charge. NEWz is supported by numerous grants, including ones from the Boston Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation, Partners HealthCare, the Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation and the McCormick Foundation.  NEWz is actively raising funds to run the organization which is largely staffed by part-staff and numerous unpaid volunteers.  If you wish to make a donation or place a support as on the web site, please contact Frank Herron.