Left to Right: MMCA Founder and CEO David Morgan, interns Aliya Moody, Dreema Carrington, India A. Hudson and Elijah Pittman, and MMCA Narrative Change Internship Program Manager Eric Brown Jr.
Washington, DC., June 26, 2023 – The Multicultural Media & Correspondents Association (MMCA) announced this week the start of an innovative summer internship program for Morgan State University students seeking to change racial narratives in media and transform the communications landscape with their ingenuity and creativity.
The eight-week program will immerse four students in the planning, production, promotion and execution of MMCA’s Racial Reckoning Discussion Series, and in the production and distribution of multimedia content to hundreds of Black, Indigenous, and other publishers of color. MMCA has hired Eric Brown Jr., an experienced mentor and media technologist, to manage the internship program.
“BIPOC communities are chronically and disproportionately targeted and harmed by mis/disinformation and stereotypes of inferiority,” said David Morgan, MMCA’s founder and CEO. “One reason MMCA created this internship pilot is to engage, develop and empower the next generation of talented and diverse media professionals to correct these false narratives that threaten our fragile democracy and create alarming economic, social and political risk for the private, public and social sectors.”
MMCA’s Racial Reckoning Discussion Series, which launched in January 2023, explores what, exactly, has changed or not changed in the 2+ years since widespread rallies for racial justice rocked the world, and what it will take to harness the country’s renewed awareness of racial inequity into transformation, healing and narrative change.
It is hosted via the BIPOCXChange (BXC), a metaverse community styled platform for BIPOC media and influencers that, among other services, hosts events and distributes digital content to its 350+ Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) media members and their audiences.
MMCA’s Narrative Change Internship is unique in that it allows students to hone their multimedia skills, produce content for hundreds of diverse media outlets, and form valuable connections with potential future employers. Interns will also have the opportunity to influence and support the planning and pre-production for the 2023 Multicultural Media & Correspondents Dinner (MMCD) and Summit, an exclusive, invitation-only gathering of media influencers, policymakers, executives, advocacy organization allies and Hollywood VIPs to honor media industry legends and luminaries of color.
“Our students learn journalism in 2023 as multimedia storytellers and this internship allows them to participate as a collective of writers, editors, videographers, digital content providers and public relation specialists,” said Ed Robinson, Professor of Multimedia Journalism at Morgan State University. “This internship has offered our students a special opportunity to implement the skill sets they learn in class while working as a team on an important project. It shouldn’t go unnoticed that the team aspect of this internship is unique and is a direct correlation to the partnership between the School of Global Journalism and Communication and the Multicultural Media & Correspondents Association.”
Robinson selected the following four students to participate in the inaugural MMCA narrative change internship:
- Dreema Carrington is a 23-year-old journalist from Baltimore who recently earned a bachelor’s in Multimedia Platform Journalism from MSU. Carrington said she switched her academic focus from creative writing to news during the 2020 pandemic “when a mix of COVID-19, police brutality, and the presidential election showed me the importance and delicacy of quality journalism.”
- Sophomore Elijah Pittman, 19, is a multimedia journalism student who has written extensively for the MSU Spokesman. Pittman aspires to work for a publication that allows him to “write stories that change the perception of the Black experience, race, and class, in both professional and interpersonal social spaces.”
- India A. Hudson, 22, of Prince George’s County, MD, recently earned a degree in multiplatform production with a concentration in film and television. Inspired by the work of actress, screenwriter and director Kasi Lemmons, Hudson says she hopes to influence and shift media narratives through writing and film directing.
- Aliya Moody, a 19-year-old sophomore from Richmond, VA, was inspired to pursue a degree in multimedia journalism when she saw “just how much the narrative of race, demographic iniquities, and social change is creating a barrier between people and the idea of equality.”
“I am excited about joining MMCA as an intern program manager, primarily because I believe in the power and potential of the now generation,” said Eric Brown, Jr. “Our young minds, with their brilliance and unique perspectives, are not only the voices of tomorrow but also significant drivers of change today. In the history of racial narratives, their voice has often been the catalyst for breakthroughs, and I look forward to facilitating their stories and ideas.”
