For immediate release

FCC CHAIRMAN WHEELER TO DELIVER 32nd ANNUAL EVERETT C. PARKER LECTURE;

THEMBA, SANDOVAL TO BE HONORED 

Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will deliver the 32nd annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture and Makani Themba and Catherine J.K. Sandoval will be honored at the 2014 Parker Lecture and Breakfast. The event, organized by the United Church of Christ’s media justice ministry, the Office of Communication, Inc., will be held at 8 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Oct. 7 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., in partnership with the Newseum Institute. The program will be live streamed at www.newseum.org.

Wheeler was appointed by President Barack Obama and became the 31st chairman of the FCC on Nov. 4, 2013. For more than three decades, he has been involved with new telecommunications networks and services, experiencing the revolution in telecommunications as a policy expert, an advocate and a businessman. He is the only person to be selected to both the Cable Television Hall of Fame and The Wireless Hall of Fame, a fact that President Obama joked made him “The Bo Jackson of Telecom.” An avid student of history, Wheeler is the author of Take Command: Leadership Lessons of the Civil War and Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War. Wheeler is a former trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a former board member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and the former chairman and president of the Foundation for the National Archives.

Themba, executive director of The Praxis Project, will receive the Everett C. Parker Award, given in recognition of an individual whose work embodies the principles and values of the public interest in telecommunications and the media. Themba helped to pioneer the developing field of justice communications, first as media director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Los Angeles and then as a media strategist supporting a range of progressive causes. At SCLC-LA, she first engaged in media policy work to support community engagement around station licensing. During her tenure as director of the Center for Media and Policy Analysis at The Marin Institute, Themba began advancing media advocacy as a mainstream practice in public health. She is co-author of Media Advocacy for Public Health: Power for Prevention, Talking the Walk: Communications Guide for Racial Justice and Fair Game: A Strategy Guide for Racial Justice Communications in the Obama Era.

Sandoval, a Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) since 2011, will receive the Donald H. McGannon Award, given in recognition of special contributions in advancing the roles of women and people of color in the media. Sandoval, the first Latino to serve as a commissioner at the CPUC, also serves as a co-vice-chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Telecommunications Committee and as policy chair of the Federal Communications Commission’s Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Telecommunications Services. Sandoval, the first Latina to win a Rhodes scholarship, directed the FCC’s Office of Communications Business Opportunities during the Clinton Administration and is a tenured faculty member of the Santa Clara University School of Law. Sandoval authored and co-authored a number of important FCC filings and articles addressing inclusion in communications policy and published a major study on commercial radio ownership by people of color.  As a CPUC commissioner she helped bring about the first telephone service available to the Yurok nation in Northern California.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Everett C. Parker’s petition to the FCC, which challenged the broadcasting license of WLBT-TV in Jackson, Miss., for its failure to serve the public interest, most notably in its coverage of that city’s African-American residents. Parker’s petition ultimately established the right of individuals to intervene in matters before the FCC.

This year’s lecture, in the Newseum’s Knight Conference Center, will be held in conjunction with the Newseum’s three-year exhibit “Civil Rights at 50,” chronicling major developments in the civil rights movement from 1963 to 1965 through news media reports.

The Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture was created in 1982 to recognize the Rev. Dr. Parker, founder of OC, Inc., and his pioneering work as an advocate for the public's rights in broadcasting. The event is the only lecture in the country to examine telecommunications in the digital age from an ethical perspective. Past speakers have included network presidents, Congressional leaders, and FCC chairs and commissioners, as well as academics, cable and telephone executives and journalists. More information is available at www.uccmediajustice.org/parker.

The Cleveland-based United Church of Christ, a Protestant denomination with more than 1 million members and nearly 5,200 local congregations nationwide, recognizes the unique power of the media to shape public understanding and thus society as a whole. For this reason, the UCC’s OC, Inc. has worked since its founding in 1959 to create just and equitable media structures that give a meaningful voice to diverse peoples, cultures and ideas. 

The Newseum Institute provides a forum for educational programs and thought-leadership initiatives, as well as educational materials, addressing the five freedoms of the First Amendment: speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition. The Newseum's 250,000-square-foot museum in downtown Washington, D.C., offers visitors a state-of-the-art experience that blends news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.

United Church of Christ, Office of Communication, Inc.

Cheryl A. Leanza, media contact

Jonathan Thompson, manager of media relations

United Church of Christ

UCC Media Justice participated today in a tweet chat, co-sponsored by the Digital Ads campaign, which is a joint project of Center for Digital Democracy and Berkeley Media Studies Group, discussing the negative impact digital advertising has on children, and in particular children of color.   There is much to be said on this topic, including the horrible immorality of targeting children whose health is already in danger. According to the CDC, 17% of kids today obese, higher for African Americans and Latinos: 22% and 20%; 1 in 5 kids! As the American Academy of Pediatrics noted, exposure to advertising is associated w/ child obesity, poor nutrition, and cigarettes & alcohol.

Digital marketing takes advantage of big data to target children in subtle ways. Extensive studies show that younger kids have a hard time understanding advertising -- that the advertisers do not have their best interest at heart in the same way that a teacher who gives advice has. In addition, the tweet chat discussed new marketing techniques using neuroscience to subtly reach around parents into a teen's subconscious to make unhealthful food more desirable. And digital marketing is ubiquitous, as children spend more and more time online.

Digital advertising directed toward kids is based also on the techniques perfected by Big Data, which has begun to gain the attention of the civil rights community. An important safeguard is giving users, including parents, control over their own data. While data can be helpful, it can also target communities and individuals in harmful ways. A large number of public interest organizations encouraged the White House to consider health in its current study of Big Data.

Studies have shown that children of color are on the receiving end of much more advertising than white children. For example, a recent study by researcher Dale Kunkel showed that more than 84% of all foods and beverages advertised to children on Spanish-language television shows are unhealthy. Another study showed African American children and teens see at least 50% more fast food ads than their white peers.

There are more resources online to learn about this issue. Salud Today has several great online videos about junk food marketing to Latino children, including this one. We particularly liked the Rudd Center's resources, including one on the challenges of weight bias and bullying directed toward kids who are overweight, and this report that discusses marketing to African American and Latino children. 

As we said toward the end of the tweetchat:

#socialjustice & #mediajustice mean treating all fairly -- don't target youth of color with junk food #digitalads harming their health!

— UCC OC Inc. (@UCCMediaJustice) April 17, 2014

Check out all the great information shared in the tweet chat by searching #DigitalAds and visiting http://www.digitalads.org/ online.