The Prism Project Enhancing Cultural-Sensitivity in the Media Media Leadership Workshop Over the course of the past three years the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission Study Circles program has brought together hundreds of First Coast citizens to discuss, at a very personal level, the impact of race relations and the opportunities available to promote inclusiveness within neighborhoods and communities. Out of these efforts grew the Action Forum, whereby citizens sought to develop an outlet for promoting fundamental change within those institutions and organizations that perpetuated discriminatory practices and/or insensitivity to appreciating the hardships faced by people of color in our community. The focus on the role of the print and electronic media proved to be a common thread throughout many of the Study Circles, thereby prompting the creation of the JHRC Media Committee. The importance of this initiative was affirmed in 2002 with the JCCI study on race relations entitled, Beyond the Talk: Improving Race Relations. The Study clearly enunciated the role and responsibility of media in this regard: While the mass media in Jacksonville have made efforts to inform and enlighten the public about Jacksonville's diverse population, they have inadequately reported the reality of race relations to the community. Currently, the media are both a significant part of the problem and a necessary part of the solution. Buoyed with this information and its own experience, the JHRC Media Committee partnered with JCCI, WJCT and The Florida Times-Union to create The Prism Project: Enhancing Cultural Sensitivity in the Media. Their collective vision was to facilitate dialogue among the members of the media that would lead to the creation of programs and activities which directly address the recommendations of the JCCI Study and that would be to: ‌to support community efforts to eliminate racial discrimination and disparities by: ensuring racially diverse viewpoints on their editorial boards; recognizing racial disparities in Jacksonville and enhancing community awareness of the issues in its reporting; and reporting and giving positive editorial recognition to efforts that successfully address Northeast Florida's racial disparities and race relations. The initial step of The Prism Project was the gathering of working members of the print and electronic media serving Northeast Florida* to two separate workshops with the purpose of discerning and prioritizing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats regarding the media's significant impact on race relations. The SWOT exercise successfully served both as a vehicle to prompt dialogue among the members of the media industry and the identification of the opportunities and threats, in particular, to raising the sensitivity level regarding race relations. In all more than fifty individuals from various print, radio, television and internet outlets participated in one or both of the workshops. At the first workshop the participants generated, on average, twenty-five different items for each SWOT category. At the second workshop many of the same participants and some newcomers reviewed the list in detail and then prioritized (as itemized below) the top four in each category that were most substantive or would have the greatest impact with respect to success or failure. In the "Weakness" category the group was asked to prioritize first those items that could be realistically affected and then those that would be beyond the wherewithal of the industry members to control. It should be noted that The Prism Project partners were most encouraged by the genuine interest on the part of those in the media industry to address this critical issue. Conversely the partners also came to better appreciate the day-to-day challenges these professionals face in their efforts to serve the citizens of Northeast Florida in a timely manner. Outlined below are the outcomes of those two meetings. * Included among the attendees to the workshops were producers, writers, reporters, news anchors, editors, news directors and internet producers from the following participating organizations.
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