Joy Reid named 2021 Hearst visiting professor at Howard University

The award-winning journalist will teach in the department of Media, Journalism, and Film in the Cathy Hughes School of Communications.

Howard University announced this week that award-winning journalist Joy Reid has been named as a Hearst visiting professor to teach a master class in Spring 2021 for juniors and seniors studying journalism.  

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Host of the MSNBC show The ReidOut, Reid shared her excitement in the official memo released by the university.

“I’m so excited to be the incoming Hearst visiting professor at Howard University, teaching a course on the impact of race and gender on political coverage,” said Reid. “Particularly in this era of virtual media, and deep partisanship and political division, it’s never been more important that journalists incorporate a thorough and honest historical context in our coverage. I can’t wait to interact with the brilliant students at Howard and share ideas with them on how we as an industry can be better and do better.” 

Administrators of the HBCU, located in Washington D.C., expressed the same enthusiasm.

“Joy Reid is a great addition to our faculty as Hearst visiting professor in Spring 2021,” said Grace Lawson-Borders, Ph.D., dean of the Cathy Hughes School of Communications. “Ms. Reid brings a depth and breadth of experience on the current media and political landscape to examine issues in a digitally enhanced academic and professional environment.” 

TIME 100 Summit 2019
Joy Reid and activist Tarana Burke participate in a panel discussion during the TIME 100 Summit 2019 on April 23, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Brian Ach/Getty Images for TIME)

“We are so honored to have Ms. Reid as a Hearst Visiting Professor,” said associate professor and journalism sequence coordinator Jennifer Thomas. “As the only Black woman to anchor a prime-time news show on any major network, she will be able to share her unique perspective with our Howard students on timely and critical issues during this pivotal time in history,” 

Reid’s course is titled Covering Race, Gender & Politics in the Digital Age. According to the university, it “will introduce students to concepts of political media coverage, focused on issues of race and gender, and discuss how those topics land in today’s increasingly ideologically siloed digitally-influenced newsroom.”

Topics include digital disinformation and Black voters and the racial roots of journalistic objectivity vs. fairness. 

The ReidOut debuted in July at number one, according to a report by theGrio. The first episode featured Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, then-presidential candidate, Joe Biden, and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Reid earned the second-highest rating ever for any regularly scheduled 7 p.m. program on MSNBC.

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“I’m trying to channel Gwen Ifill’s spirit, my mother’s spirit, and the ancestors’ spirit,” Reid said, according to the report. “Growing up, watching the news, and being a news junkie, I was being told what the world was about by almost exclusively white men.”

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