Assistant Director
Center for Communications and Community
University of California, Los Angeles

George White is assistant director and editor at the UCLA-based Center for Communications and Community. The Center – a journalism and communications research institute – seeks to fill the void between community development activists, journalists, scholars and policymakers.

He is editor of the center’s media operations – Context and C3 Online (www.C3.ucla.edu). C3 Online produces reports on communications and community development issues. It also provides research resources and tutorials for journalists and community development advocates. Context is a journal that includes reports, commentaries, and analysis on media and community issues. Journalists, academic researchers and leading community stakeholders provide the content for Context. Each issue has a theme, providing a convergence of perspectives on one issue.

In addition, White organizes the center’s public forums and communications workshops. Issues in the news are discussed at public forums. The workshops, conducted nationwide, are designed to help improve local news coverage by building the communications capacity of community groups and nonprofits at interactive sessions. Journalists have attended the workshops to find new sources and to obtain community-based perspectives on coverage. 

Previously, White was a reporter at the Los Angeles Times. In 1992, he was a member of a team of Los Angeles Times journalists that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Los Angeles riots. The Los Angeles Press Club honored his riot coverage with an "Outstanding Dedication" citation in 1992. White was also a member of the 1994 Los Angeles Times team awarded a Pulitzer for reporting on the Northridge earthquake.

In addition, White's Los Angeles Times reports on apparel sweatshops – including a 1995 exclusive on sweatshop slavery in El Monte, Ca. – prompted reforms in the nation's garment and retail industries.

George White has been a consultant for newspapers, producers of documentary filmmakers and producers of television and radio programming. He has also served as a consultant for institutions involved in improving journalism – the USC Annenberg School of Journalism and the Ford Foundation’s Media Arts and Culture unit among them.

White is on the board of advisors of Youth Radio, a nonprofit that has produced reports for National Public Radio and BBC. He is also a member of the UCLA Communications Board, a panel that oversees management of student media at the university. In addition, he has served on the board of directors of the Los Angeles Press Club and is currently on the board of directors of Black Journalists Association of Southern California, a chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists.

White received a B.A. in journalism and history and a M.A. in African history from Michigan State University.