Ding Ding TV Report – Sandy Close talks about the state of ethnic media at the Ethic Media Conference, Expo & Awards

Sandy Close, EMS Executive Director, started her career covering China and Vietnam as an editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review in the mid-1960s. She became editor of Pacific News Service in 1974 and was a pioneer in developing youth media. In 1996, she founded New America Media, the first and largest collaboration of ethnic news organizations. Her work has received several awards, including a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award” and the 2011 Polk Award for Career Achievement. In 1996, a film she co-produced, Breathing Lessons, won an Academy Award for best short documentary. She founded Ethnic Media Services in 2017 to continue her work amplifying and elevating the voices of ethnic media.

With over 300 entries, 40 finalists and 22 winners, this year’s awards ceremony at the Sheraton Grand in Sacramento brought together a “who’s who” of the ethnic media sector celebrating each other’s work and concluded a two-day Conference and Expo hosted by California Black Media and Ethnic Media Services. Several veteran judges pronounced this year’s entries “not only the most but the best entries we’ve ever seen.” Discover why ethnic media are an indispensable if often rarely recognized part of California journalism.