MPT Public Square

New Voices in Multiple Media

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	New Voices: "Multi-Racial Families" Defining who you are can be difficult in these times especially if you’re a product of a biracial marriage or relationship. During the last census taken in 2000 nearly seven million people reported they were more than one race. As a part of the New Voices student project Agnes Lee looks at the challenges and realities of being multi-racial. Web Links to Help Multi-Racial Families: New American Family Contact: Gregory Corbitt Phone: 401-349-3231 (between 9am - 7pm) The Center for the Study of Biracial Children http://www.csbc.cncfamily.com Biracial Kids: A Place for MultiEthinic/Cultural/Racial Kids http://www.biracialkids.org Maryland Task Force on Multiracial Designations DiversityWeb - A Resource Hub for Higher Education http://www.diversityweb.org MPT.org: New Voices

	New Voices: "Black Skin Color" Reported by Mara Schiavocampo Even among the African-American community there are prejudices based on skin color, with light skin being an asset and dark skin being a liability. Produced by Mara Schiavocampo, a grad student at University of Maryland College Park who recently accepted a job with CBS News in New York.

	New Voices: "Hispanic Day Laborers Struggle For Work and Place" Reported by Erika Martincorina It is 7 a.m. and already many are gathered in front of a parking lot in Langley Park. They're not waiting for the bus...they at least know it will come on schedule. They're waiting for something that is not guaranteed...they're waiting for work. Erika Martincorina covers the continuing problems between Hispanic day laborers and community business people in Langley Park, on the Prince George's/Montgomery Counties border.

	New Voices: "Police Community Relations" Reported by Donald Champion Police Departments struggle almost daily with their relationships with the communities they police. Some of those relationships are more difficult than others. For example, Police in Majority-Black Prince George's County are under fire constantly for their interaction with African Americans. We have another report tonight in our "New Voices" series. Student Journalist Donald Champion found that solving the problem starts with the County's youth.

	New Voices: "Korean & African-American Tensions" Reported by Esther You Cultural and language differences often account for tensions between Korean store owners and Black customers. In this "New Voices" segment we take a look at how Korean merchants are making a conscious effort to overcome that problem in the Greater Washington Area.

	New Voices: "Professional Mental Health Care in the African-American Community" Reported by Mark Jones Professional Mental Health Care is not in the African-American tradition. In fact, a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that the stereotype associated with seeking professional treatment is a major reason why many in the African-American community do not get the help. Pat DeLorme, a licensed clinical social worker, says that a sense of alienation in the African-American community has deep roots.

	New Voices: "Obesity in the African American Community" Reported by Angela Tyson American adults are more overweight than ever. Research shows that 61 percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese, and the number for African American women is even higher. Tonight Angela Tyson talks to a medical researcher to find out why obesity affects African American women disproportionately. Angela also interviews a woman who is far overweight but is working to take the pounds off.

	New Voices: "Drop Out Rate In Baltimore" Reported by Brandi Proctor Baltimore City Students are in danger, in danger of becoming a statistic, in danger of becoming a dropout. Almost 14,000 students attend these neighborhood schools which have a 71% attrition rate. The question is why are they dropping out? Brandi Proctor reports.

Thanks to a grant from the Ford Foundation, MPT has undertaken a special project we call New Voices in Multiple Media, an initiative that recruits budding young journalists of various ethnic backgrounds to develop and report stories from their communities for use on-air and online. It enables us to expand the range of our reporting about Maryland its people, while helping young people gain experience that may give them an advantage in the highly competitive field of journalism. We recruited nine such young people from the University of Maryland, Morgan State University, Towson University, and other colleges and universities in and around Maryland. Each developed a story with a direct bearing on a community that is usually underserved, and the finished products aired on Direct Connection with Jeff Salkin and are streamed on our Web site. Supervising their work was a team of experienced MPT journalists headed by John Aubuchon, who is senior correspondent for Direct Connection and also the president of the National Press Club. MPT Vice President Everett Marshburn, head of our News and Community Affairs Department, says that New Voices in Multiple Media was more than an internship program. "The reality," he says, "is that they will get a genuine news story on the air on a PBS station, which is a wonderful credential for an aspiring journalist." In fact, it’s so impressive that one of our nine new voices, Maria Schiavocampo, a University of Maryland graduate student, left our program a little early to take a job at WCBS in New York.