Five prominent newspaper journalists joined research assistant professor Mary Hill-Wagner for an April 19 panel discussion about the media's role in the 1992 eruption of violence that occurred in the wake of the Rodney King trial in the Los Angeles area (watch the video).
"This commemorative event looks at a moment in our city's life and our nation's life and certainly in the life of the media that is hard to compare in terms of its import, and we're here tonight to think about that event and the media coverage of it 20 years later," School of Journalism director Geneva Overholser said.
The panel members — Pasadena Weekly editor Kevin Uhrich ; Our Weekly managing editor Cynthia Griffin ; Los Angeles Times senior features photo editor Kirk McKoy ; Los Angeles Sentinel managing editor Yussuf Simmonds ; and former Korea Times (English language edition) editor Kyung W. Lee — all had different viewpoints about what the media should even call what is commonly referred to as the Los Angeles Riots.
The program, underwritten by a generous grant from the Ford Foundation, also explored whether history might soon repeat itself.
