Farai Chideya is a multi-media journalist and the author of the newly released novel Kiss the Sky (Atria Books). She's also a frequent guest-cohost on WNYC's syndicated morning show, "The Takeaway" with John Hockenberry. You can find out more about Farai at http://www.faraichideya.com.

Blog Entries by Farai Chideya

Obama Year One: Good for the Journalists? A Story of Fear and Hope.

Posted November 4, 2009 | 03:40 PM (EST)


A year ago today, I was in NPR's Los Angeles studios, providing commentary for the network's election night special. I'd worked a double shift, first as the host of the African-American focused show News and Notes, then rolling on into the coverage of returns and looks at ballot initiatives like...

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Obama's Nobel: Will Americans Learn to Value Our Own Diversity?

7 Comments | Posted October 9, 2009 | 08:16 AM (EST)


When I woke up this morning to find out that President Obama had won the Nobel prize, based on diplomacy and anti-nuclear proliferation work, I immediately sent notice to my circle of friends, and then went onto the social media space to see what the other instapundits were saying.

One...

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Can Howard Kurtz See Race (if It's White)?

5 Comments | Posted July 6, 2009 | 02:40 PM (EST)


Uber-media critic Howard Kurtz has gotten it coming and going in the past month. First, CNN got lambasted for mis-covering the Iran election and protests. In an age where Twitter is fetishized, a hashtag (or searchable ID) called #CNNFail became all the rage.

This article on MediaBistro links to...

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Michael as Memory

7 Comments | Posted July 3, 2009 | 12:24 PM (EST)


I recently released Kiss the Sky, a novel about a black rock musician. Then I did an event with an actual black rock musician who read my book and said that the part about Michael Jackson was so eerie. I had forgotten all about it. But I found it......

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Iran + Twitter = Trust, But Don't Verify

7 Comments | Posted June 17, 2009 | 04:54 PM (EST)


Okay, so I must admit to some confusion over what the heck we journalists are doing with the concept of verification in this new age of Twitter news. Don't get me wrong. I am not anti-Twitter. At this point in the insfosphere that would be like, say, being "anti-oxygen." You...

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Lee, Ling and North Korea: Are We Informed?

5 Comments | Posted June 8, 2009 | 05:35 PM (EST)


I landed at JFK after a short trip out of the country, eager to get my bags and go home. But one of the video monitors caught my eye... a presenter from the BBC was announcing the breaking news that journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee of the Current Network...

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Educational Opportunity in the Age of Obama

1 Comments | Posted May 25, 2009 | 03:36 AM (EST)


The man leaned out over the podium, looking at the robed students seated in the first rows of the auditorium.

"You're multicultural with different lifestyles and beliefs," he said, "and together, you represent the face of America."

Those words could have come from the mouth of another of this weekend's...

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Namaste, Mama

14 Comments | Posted May 7, 2009 | 12:16 PM (EST)


"A mother never dies," the man said to me. "A mother never dies."

His name is John. We met on the subway, five days before Mother's Day. I was taking the C train uptown, and luckily the stifling hot, crowded train partially emptied out at 42nd Street. The seats...

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