Photo by Malik Brown for rolling out
On Aug. 3, General Motors hosted a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention titled “The Importance of Diverse Storytellers in Corporate America and Beyond.”
The panel included Francesca Weems, the senior vice president of FleishmanHillard, Porsha Monique, the managing editor for rolling out, Vickie Thomas, director of communications for the City of Detroit, and Trevor Thompkins, the senior manager of Chevrolet Communications.The panel elucidated on the practice of diverse storytelling, and why it’s important that it should be more prominent in newsrooms and other media entities.
“In today’s ever-evolving landscape, the significance of diverse storytellers in corporate America and beyond cannot be overstated, Monique said. “The Census Bureau’s projections should serve as a powerful wake-up call for companies across all industries. Acknowledging this imminent shift is not only crucial from a moral and ethical standpoint, but also an essential business strategy. By recognizing and embracing the diversity of our nation, companies can tap into a massive and growing consumer base that has been historically underrepresented and underserved.”Artificial intelligence was an important topic of discussion for the panel as well, particularly expanding its prominence on the media landscape.
“I share some excitement in what it can bring for us in terms of gaining efficiencies,” Thompkins said. “So the things that you can do faster if you’re using AI, there are areas that I can spend more time with, I’m devoting less time to something that I can go off to AI to do. But also, you have to be so incredibly careful about where the systems are pulling their knowledge from, and the power that they have to put out a message. If unchecked, they can disrupt something for a brand, person, or somebody’s self-image. It can intentionally or unintentionally tear down a community, or a group of people as we see already.
“As African Americans and people of color, we need to have our hand in making sure that we are developing AI because if we don’t, biases are created,” Monique said. “If we don’t, they won’t necessarily get our stories, right, because they’re going off of the facts that they already have, and if we’re not contributing to the development of it, then they won’t know our perspective.”
Source: Rolling Out
