Retha Hill, director of new media at ASU’s Cronkite School of Journalism, has lauded the “very inclusive group of speakers” at AAN’s recent Web Conference in San Francisco, where she was a keynote speaker.

In a December blog post, Hill discussed the lack of minority presenters and attendees at new media conferences, and found plenty of blame to go around:

I’m not going to put all of the blame, if you will, for the lack of diversity at these conferences on the organizers. Persons of color who are innovating or want to innovate need to get involved and raise their own profiles. The UNITY journalism groups have been way too slow in preparing members to make the transition from staff member to COO of their own ventures or training them to roll from legacy to new media.

Hill says that in addition to simply getting minorities to conferences, it’s important to convince “more newsy people of color to get into the digital game and getting them comfortable with the idea that new media, with all its messy talk of economics, is here to stay.”