EAST LANSING, Mich. - Felix Gutierrez, senior vice president of the Freedom Forum's interactive museum of news called Newseum, will present the annual Frederick S. Siebert Lecture at Michigan State University on Thursday, Oct. 25.
Gutierrez will speak at 4 p.m. in Gold Rooms A-B of the MSU Union. His address - "One Freedom, Many Voices?" - is free and open to the public.
"Felix Gutierrez is an exceptional scholar and powerful advocate for the cause of achieving greater diversity in American journalism," said James D. Spaniolo, dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences. "He has been a pioneer throughout his distinguished career, and we are fortunate to have him on campus."
Gutierrez's work in advancing diversity in journalism education, employment and coverage has been recognized nationally by many professional associations. He is author or co-author of four books and more than 45 scholarly articles or book chapters focusing on technological and cultural changes in the media. His co-authored book Race, Multiculturalism and the Media: From Mass to Class Communication was awarded the 1996 Gustavus Myers Award as Outstanding Book on Human Rights in North America.
Gutierrez is former executive director of the Freedom Forum Pacific Coast Center. He served as dean and journalism professor at the University of Southern California from 1979 to 1990 and at California State University-Northridge from 1974 to 1979. In the late 1980s, he also covered media issues for the Los Angeles bureau of the Associated Press.
His education includes a master's degree and a doctorate in communication from Stanford University, a master's from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and a bachelor's degree in social studies from California State College-Los Angeles, where he edited an award-winning campus daily newspaper and later served as student body president.
The MSU School of Journalism established the Siebert Lecture series in 1968 in honor of Frederick S. Siebert, director of the School of Journalism from 1957 to 1960 and dean of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences from 1960 to 1967. The lecture provides an annual forum for discussion about freedom of the press and the First Amendment.
Siebert was a distinguished teacher and scholar who published important works on the history of the First Amendment and participated in a number of well-known First Amendment cases in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The lecture is co-sponsored this year by the Michigan Press Association, The State News and the MSU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.