Here’s some additional reading on the topic if you’d like to learn more. The pieces were written by Sally Lehrman, freelance writer and diversity chair for the Society of Professional Journalists.

Believing Is Seeing: Optical Illusions and Social Stereotypes: To challenge your own assumptions, you have to recognize them. An exercise in observation can help.

Why Race-Based Data Matters: New research suggests that even as overt discrimination wanes in American society, racism has persisted in more subtle ways.

The Implicit Prejudice: Mahzarin Banaji can show how we connect “good” and “bad” with biased attitudes we hold, even if we say we don’t. Especially when we say we don’t.

Also check out Sally’s new book, “News in New America.”

Obama’s speech will be the final event of a five-day conference that attracted nearly 7,000 journalists from across the country and will be televised live at 11 a.m. (CDT) from the Skyline Ballroom at McCormick Place West convention center.

UNITY announced yesterday that Obama will take questions from a panel of journalists moderated by Suzanne Malveaux, CNN anchor, and Romesh Ratnesar, world editor, TIME magazine.

The panel of questioners include John Yang, White House correspondent, NBC News, representing the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA); Leonard Pitts, Jr., columnist, The Miami Herald, representing the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ); Dianne Solis, senior writer, The Dallas Morning News, and representing the National Association of Hispanic Journalists; and Brian Bull, assistant news director, Wisconsin Public Radio, representing the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA).

Obama’s appearance will be his first public address after returning from his trip to Europe and the Middle East. Only attendees of the UNITY convention and working press who received prior press credentials will be permitted to attend. There will be no media availability at the close of the program.

UNITY also asked Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, to speak at the conference. The McCain campaign declined the invitation, citing scheduling conflicts.

The official convention news site (with RSS feed): unitynews.org

Jeff Winbush, thedailyvoice.com: “Blogging from the Unity Convention” and on his own site

Leila Noelliste, ChicagoDefender.com: “Minority journalists gather in Chicago for UNITY convention”

Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com: “Minority Journalists Converge on Chicago for UNITY Convention; Obama Set to Speak Sunday”

Susan Chandler, Chicago Tribune: “Some journalists gather in hope; In a time when many media organizations are slashing staffs and downsizing their publications, the Unity convention in Chicago gives minorities a chance to talk”

Esther J. Cepeda, 600words.com: “The next extinct species: the Latino journalist”

NPR: “Journalists Of Color To Gather At UNITY”

Eric Deggans, St. Petersburg Times: “How to translate the total BS of Hollywood”

Streaming Magazine: “Cox Enterprises Offers Journalism Scholarships”

HispanicTips.com: “Journalists Of Color To Gather At UNITY – Chicago”

ABC7 Chicago: “Unity ’08 Conventions kicks off in Chicago”

Ray Hanania: “UNITY Pushes for diversity in mainstream media, but not in their own ranks”

USA Today: “Diversity in news media could falter”

Florida Courier: “Who should decide what’s news?”

Eric Deggans, TampaBay.com: “Taking on Jena, Jeremiah and Barack Obama at the UNITY conference”

Sree Sreenivasan, SAJAforum.org: “Unity Convention in Chicago hosts 6000 journalists”

Democracy Now: “Race, Politics and the Media: A Roundtable Discussion”

Black College Wire: “The Road to UNITY 2008“

Here’s the mobile version of the UNITY News site (you need to enter the URL into your mobile browser):
http://unity08.mofuse.mobi

Uncovering Unconscious Bias to Improve Coverage of Race
Saturday, July 26, 2008
1:15 PM – 2:45 PM
McCormick Place West W176

• Carole Simpson, Anchor, World News Tonight Sunday, ABC News
• Melissa Cornick, Investigative Producer, Independent
• John Dovidio, Professor of Psychology, Yale University
• Roosevelt Thomas, President, The American Institute for Managing Diversity
• Eva Paterson, President, Equal Justice Society

Panel Description: Is your news executive aware that unconscious bias can affect political coverage, create faulty editorial decisions on a range of stories and hamper the career development of people of color who work in the newsrooms? Come hear about the theory of unconscious bias, a social science discipline that can help to modernize methods used by news organizations seeking to cover American race relations and related topics, such as: How much does the fate of the Presidential election hang on unconscious bias in the newsroom? Join veteran journalists, social psychologist and social justice experts in a lively discussion of both the theory of unconscious bias, and how reporters and editors can tap into research to inform and improve internal relationships, as well as news coverage.