1997 Fredericton Convocation
Medina, Ann
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.)
Orator: Patterson, Stephen E.
Citation:
CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1997
ANN MEDINA
to be Doctor of Letters
Today we are honoring one of Canada's foremost broadcast journalists. Familiar to us as moderator of the Leaders' Debates in the last two federal election campaigns, and a regular over the years on CBC television's The National and Newsworld, Ann Medina stands apart for her penetrating analysis and crisp no-nonsense delivery.
She is American by birth. She grew up in New York City and set off in an academic direction that was far removed from where she ended up. She studied Philosophy at Wellesey College, and continued to take courses in Philosophy at Harvard and the University of Edinburgh, before entering the graduate school of the University of Chicago to take her M.A., again in Philosophy. As with so many others who graduate with degrees in the humanities, she discovered her own versatility. And she discovered that her interest in the human predicament would interest others if she could communicate it to them. She began her television career in Chicago, and before long she was a network producer for NBC news, and then a correspondent, news producer and documentary producer for ABC.
Marriage to a Canadian brought her to Canada in the mid 1970s. In no time, she was producing news programs for CBC television, and by 1981 was named Senior Foreign Correspondent for The Journal. If Canadian viewers had not particularly noticed her before this time, it was difficult to miss her now. She accepted some of the most dangerous assignments there were, striking awe in those who fully understood the difficulties she faced in covering the troubled middle east. When bombs were falling on Beirut in 1983-84, she was there as the CBC's Beirut Bureau chief. She regularly filed stories from the midst of street fighting, the risks to her and her crew obvious for anyone to see. But when she also won direct interviews with leading combatants from both sides, it became fully apparent that this was no ordinary reporter. This was a person who commanded respect wherever she was. It may be the irony of ironies that it was a woman journalist who convinced male terrorists from male-dominated cultures that they should speak to the world through her. Not surprisingly, networks in three countries clambered for her material, which now regularly aired on BBC's Newsnight and PBS' MacNeil-Lehrer Report, as well as nightly on CBC's The National.
Today, Ann Medina is an independent producer living in Toronto. She consults with international corporations and willingly speaks about communications and international relations. She generously shares her time and talents with organizations dedicated to Canadian film and television production, and she continues to appear on Newsworld and to accept special assignments from CBC.
Recent events have shown us that media-bashing is becoming a popular sport with no rules. While much of it may be fully justified, there is a need for a more balanced critical appraisal of newspapers, magazines, television and radio. There is also the need to discriminate and to recognize excellence where it exists. In honoring Ann Medina, the University of New Brunswick is doing precisely that: this University sees in her work a standard of reportage that is exceptional, a commitment to truth that we ourselves seek to emulate, a service to the public marked by journalistic skill and above all by courage. In a world in which it is sometimes difficult to find a newspaper with any news in it, or television coverage that offers any depth, Ann Medina's work stands out as a model of how to find the significant, and having found it, how to report it honestly and clearly. We salute her for her brilliant achievement.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
ANN MEDINA
to be Doctor of Letters
Today we are honoring one of Canada's foremost broadcast journalists. Familiar to us as moderator of the Leaders' Debates in the last two federal election campaigns, and a regular over the years on CBC television's The National and Newsworld, Ann Medina stands apart for her penetrating analysis and crisp no-nonsense delivery.
She is American by birth. She grew up in New York City and set off in an academic direction that was far removed from where she ended up. She studied Philosophy at Wellesey College, and continued to take courses in Philosophy at Harvard and the University of Edinburgh, before entering the graduate school of the University of Chicago to take her M.A., again in Philosophy. As with so many others who graduate with degrees in the humanities, she discovered her own versatility. And she discovered that her interest in the human predicament would interest others if she could communicate it to them. She began her television career in Chicago, and before long she was a network producer for NBC news, and then a correspondent, news producer and documentary producer for ABC.
Marriage to a Canadian brought her to Canada in the mid 1970s. In no time, she was producing news programs for CBC television, and by 1981 was named Senior Foreign Correspondent for The Journal. If Canadian viewers had not particularly noticed her before this time, it was difficult to miss her now. She accepted some of the most dangerous assignments there were, striking awe in those who fully understood the difficulties she faced in covering the troubled middle east. When bombs were falling on Beirut in 1983-84, she was there as the CBC's Beirut Bureau chief. She regularly filed stories from the midst of street fighting, the risks to her and her crew obvious for anyone to see. But when she also won direct interviews with leading combatants from both sides, it became fully apparent that this was no ordinary reporter. This was a person who commanded respect wherever she was. It may be the irony of ironies that it was a woman journalist who convinced male terrorists from male-dominated cultures that they should speak to the world through her. Not surprisingly, networks in three countries clambered for her material, which now regularly aired on BBC's Newsnight and PBS' MacNeil-Lehrer Report, as well as nightly on CBC's The National.
Today, Ann Medina is an independent producer living in Toronto. She consults with international corporations and willingly speaks about communications and international relations. She generously shares her time and talents with organizations dedicated to Canadian film and television production, and she continues to appear on Newsworld and to accept special assignments from CBC.
Recent events have shown us that media-bashing is becoming a popular sport with no rules. While much of it may be fully justified, there is a need for a more balanced critical appraisal of newspapers, magazines, television and radio. There is also the need to discriminate and to recognize excellence where it exists. In honoring Ann Medina, the University of New Brunswick is doing precisely that: this University sees in her work a standard of reportage that is exceptional, a commitment to truth that we ourselves seek to emulate, a service to the public marked by journalistic skill and above all by courage. In a world in which it is sometimes difficult to find a newspaper with any news in it, or television coverage that offers any depth, Ann Medina's work stands out as a model of how to find the significant, and having found it, how to report it honestly and clearly. We salute her for her brilliant achievement.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 3
Citations may be reproduced for research purposes only. Publication in whole or in part requires written permission from the author.