Kristian Davis Bailey
I am a Stanford University student from New York City pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity, with a focus on how power and inequality are produced across not only race and ethnicity, but also class, gender and sexuality. I plan to pursue a co-terminal Master’s degree in Media Studies starting winter 2013. I ultimately aspire towards journalism/media and am interested in how to use them as tools for community development to equalize the power balance in our world and reduce inequality.
On campus, I have primarily served as a News desk editor and writer for The Stanford Daily. This coming year, I will assist with social media and editorial training on the public relations committee of the Stanford NAACP. I will also serve on our university student government’s Community Action Board, which works with university administrators to address campus-wide issues of diversity, in all manifestations of the term.
I also work as an administrative assistant to the Graduate Program in Journalism, helping them prepare coursework, program events and manage online material. One benefit of this is being able to take a couple of Master’s level Journalism courses! This site is the project for my current course, Digital Journalism, which is taught by former Washington Post editor R.B. Brenner and AllThingsD associate editor Drake Martinet.
I am in the process of figuring out my political ideology–many things seem wrong with the current political and economic systems: rapid change is stifled by partisan politics that have more entertainment value than political content; the rights and resources available to the middle and working classes, as well as the poor seem to be diminishing every day, distorting an already unequal playing field, in the interests of corporations and profits; and through all of this, we seem to be getting a mainstream media system that is growing increasingly consolidated and increasingly profit-driven. These issues, which are the three most important ones to me, seem to synergize with each other and I cannot figure out how to begin to change their courses, or even where to begin.
I am working at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. this summer, assisting with an audit of Native media with the Open Technology Initiative‘s Media Policy Initiative, and working with Native Public Media. Stay tuned for updates about my summer experience!
This website is intended to be a chronicle of my struggle with these issues.
I hope you enjoy the ride.
Contact me: kbailey@stanford.edu
