Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Wes Lowery immerses himself in CMU
Nearly every seat in the Bovee University Center Auditorium was filled with ecstatic Central Michigan University students and staff the evening of Thursday, Jan. 23.
Their gaze was fixed upon a sharp young man who dedicated his young adulthood to accurate journalism.
That man was Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Wes Lowery, famous in the media world for his coverage of the Ferguson protests of 2014.
The event was part of the Critical Engagements initiative of the Department of Journalism and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. The project urges students and staff to engage in challenging contemporary topics.
This year's theme is "Fake News: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?"
"One of the most important skills we can develop at this moment is our ability to decipher who and what we can trust and can't trust," Lowery said. "When people invoke the idea of fake news they're not thinking that the news is purely made up. They're asking themselves is this news fair, is it complete, is it fully contextualized, will I be able to find news online that contradicts what you say?"
Before his 7 p.m. presentation, Lowery immersed himself in CMU, meeting with faculty of the CLASS Dean's office, President Bob Davies and the CM Life staff.
Between his meetings, Lowery remained dedicated to his work – calling sources, reading the news and conducting investigations.
During his final presentation, Department of History Chair Gregory Smith interviewed Lowery before taking questions from audience members.
"Sometimes you have to pause and say are we helping or hurting the world right now with the way we're framing things, with the way we're talking about things, with the context we're providing and the stories we choose to tell," Lowery said. "These are important questions that our industry is grappling with because the media has power and our words matter."
Lowery's coverage of the Ferguson uprising is chronicled in his book, "They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement," (2016).
Aside from his career at the Washington Post, Lowery is also a frequent CNN political contributor.
