Mitchell portrait/ Anthony Gray Lin-Fisher portrait/ Ed Suba Jr., Akron Beacon Journal
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Shelton has long been recognized as the School’s diversity leader. His work in outreach and recruiting in urban schools led to JMC winning the University’s Diversity Leadership Award for an Academic or Service Unit in 2008.
a course that would establish a collaboration between JMC and the Pan-African Studies Department. “The course teaches students that there are more people than Oprah Winfrey who contribute to the field of communications,” Shelton said.
For the past 10 years, Shelton has managed the prestigious McGruder Lecture and Awards Program. Named in honor of Robert G. McGruder, a 1963 Kent State graduate, the awards program recognizes media professionals who encourage diversity in the field of journalism [see sidebar]. McGruder was a pioneer in diversity and journalism. He was the first black editor of The Daily Kent Stater, the first black reporter for The Plain Dealer, the first black to become president of the Associated Press Managing Editors Group, and the first black editor at the Detroit Free Press.
Shelton also developed the highly popular Record Promotion I and II courses. Shelton was able to draw upon his extensive experience in the recording industry, where he worked as a writer, publicist and later manager of Artist Relations at Motown Records, general publicist of the Black Music Division of CBS Records and director of Media Relations and later Vice President of Media Relations at Warner Brothers Records. “I’m very proud of the fact that the Record Promotion classes have always attracted a very diverse student roster, including those who love the singer-songwriter, alternative music, rock music and country music. We look at all the genres in the class,” he said.
McGruder inspires Shelton’s current work, even though Shelton had never heard his name when he attended Kent State. “When I was an undergrad, someone could have said, ‘You know, there was somebody else of your color who went through this program and was very successful.’ That could have done wondrous things for my outlook on life, my possibilities and my spirit,” Shelton said. Inspiring students by showing them successful media professionals of diversity is part of what led Shelton to create the course, African-American Media: The Power and the Purpose. Shelton was delighted to create
Shelton also teaches Introduction to Mass Communication and Media, Power and Culture, courses that annually draw hundreds of diverse students. Shelton graduated from Kent State in 1972 with a degree in telecommunications and returned to JMC nearly three decades later for his master’s degree. He began teaching as a grad student in the spring of 2003 and joined the faculty as an instructor in the fall of 2003. After earning his degree in 2004, he became an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in the spring of 2012.
Cleveland’s WKYC Anchor Named 2013 McGruder Award for Media Diversity Winner at 10th Anniversary Event Russ Mitchell, managing editor of evening news and lead anchor of the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts on WKYC Channel 3 News in Cleveland, was named the 2013 winner of the Robert G. McGruder Award for Diversity by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State University. The award recognizes the accomplishments of media professionals who encourage diversity in the field of journalism. Mitchell was honored at the annual awards luncheon and lecture on April 2. Betty Lin-Fisher, an 18-year veteran of the Akron Beacon Journal, was recognized at the McGruder luncheon as the 2013 Diversity in Media Distinguished Leadership Award winner. She is the first Asian-American to be acknowledged with this award. The annual luncheon and lecture was cosponsored by Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. The 2013 awards program marked 10 years of honoring diversity excellence with the Robert G. McGruder Award for Diversity, and the lecture and luncheon has become one of Kent State’s most successful diversity events. McGruder was a foundational local figure for diversity in journalism. He was also a strong proponent for diversity in and out of the newsroom: “Please know that I stand for diversity,” he said once. “I represent the AfricanAmericans, Latinos, Arab-Americans, Asians, Native Americans, gays and lesbians, women and all others we must see represented in our business offices, newsrooms and newspapers.”
Jargon | spring 2013 | Issue 2