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Celeste Durant, Director of Communications and Media Relations for Loyola Marymount University, stands in front of the Foley Building after her visit to AAJA's J Camp. Cathy Li / J-Camp Live
By Leslie Nguyen-Okwu, J Camp Live! staff
From covering Michael Jackson’s 2005 trial to traveling to Japan, Celeste Durant once lived the life of a globe trotting journalist. But she’s since traded her reporter notebook for a career in public relations, and now works as the director of communications and media relations at Loyola Marymount University.
Durant’s love for academia spurred her to pursue a career in public relations at several college campuses including the University of Southern California, University of California at Riverside, and Loyola Marymount University. Although making the transition from broadcast writing for television to print writing was difficult for Durant, she credits her upper advantage to her work as an experienced journalist.
“For all those years, I was the one calling up an institution and saying, ‘I want to talk this person or this is the background I need’,” said Durant said. “Now, I have those people calling me up. Because I did it for such a long time, I know what they need as well as kind of what to avoid. It really is the flip side if journalism.“
A graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism with a degree in broadcast journalism, Durant often worked as one the few African American journalists in a myriad of publications and broadcast productions. Her previous employers included some of the biggest names in media: Life magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Today Show at MSNBC, and NBC Nightly News.
“When I started in journalism, I was one of few African American women,” Durant said. “In fact, I think I was the first or second African American woman working in the Los Angeles Times. So, it was very lonely in the sense that you end up being more representative of your community to the point of being an advocate for them within your organization. Because I was the first, I was the youngest, people were more distrusting of me and my information.”
As a young woman of color, Durant was no stranger to the plight of inner-city discrimination. She left her position as a metro reporter at the Los Angeles Times shortly after an incident of the unwarranted shooting of an African American woman. When the Times prohibited Durant from publishing the story, Durant made the switch to the television industry where she again found herself as the only African American producer.
“It made big changes there,” said Durant. “They did get more African American reporters after I left… but if you are the first or the second, you can make changes if you’re honest with yourself and speak up for what you think is right.”
Durant describes the journalism industry as a “career for young people”. She also views the issue of failing to maintain neutrality in the media as politically and socially divisive and consequently, hazardous to a diverse society. She emphasizes objectivity for emerging journalists as an essential tool for the industry’s future.
“The challenge for young journalists is going to be figuring out what journalism is from now on and what format it’s going to take,” said Durant. “Right now, we’ve got this situation where nobody or very few people are providing balanced coverage. It’s a value that’s being lost. Future journalists… should be the people telling the community what they need to know, not just what they want to know. They are the eyes and ears of the community and that’s basically what journalism is.”
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