Transgender representation in the news media is largely focused on big picture stories: Transgender military bans, trans representation in scripted television and advertising and stories about transgender children largely drive the coverage. But while transgender reporting is more visible today than ever before, it represents a small fraction of coverage in broadcast and print. In this cross-disciplinary session, transgender individuals from reporters to scholars will explore vital issues within the transgender community, from employment discrimination to income inequality to incarceration rates to basic health-care concerns.
Panelists: Jacob Anderson-Minshall, Ina Fried, Ryan McClendon, Jules Purnell, Brooke Sopelsa
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INA FRIED is chief technology correspondent for Axios and author of its daily tech newsletter. Before joining Axios in February 2017, she was a senior editor at Recode, covering mobile, and produced the Code/Mobile series of conferences. Her road to becoming the woman she is today has been a long one. Before helping launch Recode, Fried covered mobile at All Things Digital. Prior to that she spent a decade at CNET where she covered, among other things, Microsoft and Apple. Her reporting spanned several continents, two genders and included chronicling the Hewlett Packard-Compaq merger, Bill Gates’ transition from software giant to philanthropist and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. She is also a former vice president and national board member for NLGJA: The LGBTQ Journalists Association and a member of the LGBTQ Journalists Hall of Fame.
RYAN McCLENDON is a video producer with “Andrea Mitchell Reports” on MSNBC. Before joining MSNBC in January 2013, he was deputy video editor at NewsCore, the internal wire service of NewsCorp and was a regular contributing producer with The Associated Press (APTN). He was the winner of the Leroy F. Aarons Scholarship in 2009.
JULES PURNELL is a sexuality educator, writer, speaker, facilitator and curriculum developer. They specialize in discussing complex and sensitive subjects in a nonjudgmental, compassionate and factual manner appropriate for professionals and laypersons alike. They are a graduate at Widener University’s Center for Human Sexuality Studies, as well as teen council coordinator with Planned Parenthood of Delaware.
BROOKE SOPELSA is the editorial manager of NBC Out, the LGBTQ digital destination launched by NBC News in June 2016. Under Sopelsa’s leadership, NBCOut.com seeks to both enlighten and entertain by showcasing enterprise reporting, original video and other unique content about and of interest to the LGBTQ community. Prior to her return to the NBC family, Brooke was a producer at the Huffington Post, where she developed and produced live news and lifestyle segments. During her time at HuffPost, she created content ranging from business news segments to celebrity interviews — and was awarded a 2015 RTDNA Kaleidoscope Award for her LGBTQ coverage. Before joining HuffPost, Sopelsa spent six years at NBC — first as a writer/producer for CNBC.com and then as a producer for MSNBC.com, where she earned a GLAAD Media Award nomination for her multimedia report on the contemporary voguing scene. In addition to digital media, Sopelsa has worked in both documentary film production and television news. She co-produced, shot and edited the documentary “Queer Streets,” a film about LGBTQ homeless youth, which aired on MTV’s LOGO channel from 2008-11. Sopelsa started her career in journalism as a production assistant and shortly thereafter an on-air reporter at Time Warner Cable Channel 10 News in Bergen County, New Jersey. Sopelsa holds a bachelor’s. in economics from Bucknell University, a master’s in journalism from Columbia University and a master’s in business administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business.