The University of Missouri has announced that it has launched the new Media & Diversity Center on campus. The new center will conduct research and advocate for increasing racial, ethnic, gender, and other diversity in traditional and new media.
According to the center’s website, “our mission is to take broad approaches toward examining media and diversity with regard to the complexity of social group identities and experiences. We aim to make recommendations to promote socially productive portrayals in the landscape of modern media. In so doing, we hope to contribute to addressing the roles of media in influencing prejudice and social stigma in society.”
Julius Riles, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Missouri, was named co-director of the new center. He stated that “looking at ways we can enhance the diversity of portrayals in the media, and the way those portrayals can influence society to engage in more productive and diverse types of social exchanges — that’s right in my wheelhouse.”
Dr. Riles joined the faculty at the University of Missouri last fall. He holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in communication, all from the University of Illinois.
