Breaking the Frame: Revitalizing and Redefining Reproductive Rights Media Coverage
This session aims to share tactics that broaden the discussion of sexual and reproductive health issues both in the progressive blogosphere and in the mainstream media. In order to better connect feminist bloggers and reproductive health advocates to the media, panelists will discuss fresh, more accurate and comprehensive frames through which to report reproductive rights news, including incorporating voices of women of color, men, mothers and LGBT individuals. Participants will brainstorm useful communications mechanisms for bloggers and writers reporting on reproductive rights, and connect those bloggers to the policy and demographic research produced by reproductive rights organizations.
Amie Newman is the managing editor for RH Reality Check—an online publication covering global reproductive and sexual health news and information. She began her communications career more than fifteen years ago, working in television production for NBC, MTV and PBS before moving on to communications work on behalf of various progressive organizations. Amie was on the original board of directors for the magazine Our Truths-Nuestras Verdades and also works with One by One, an agency working to eliminate obstetric fistula worldwide. She lives in Seattle with her fabulously crazy family.
Amanda Marcotte is a freelance writer and blogger based in Brooklyn after a lifetime of living in Texas. She publishes regularly at Pandagon, RH Reality Check, and Double X, and has written for Slate, Salon, the Guardian, the American Prospect, and the LA Times. She focuses on feminism, monitoring the American right, and having a grand old time doing it.
Marcela Howell is the vice president of communication, marketing and policy for Advocates for Youth, a non-profit organization that supports programs and policies for the sexual and reproductive health of young people. She is the author of Walk in My Shoes: A Black Activist's Guide to Surviving the Women's Movement. Howell has a wealth of knowledge in public policy, grassroots organizing, public education and communications. She taught African American literature and linguistics in the Black Studies Department and a course on Black Women in American Literature for the Women’s Center at Washington University in St. Louis.
Eesha Pandit is currently director of advocacy at The MergerWatch Project in New York. She is active in MergerWatch’s work with Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need. She has been a regular contributor to RH Reality Check and previously served as Associate Director of Programs at the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program. She has also worked with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University and Amnesty International USA’s Women’s Rights Program. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and the University of Chicago.
