"With great power comes great responsibility."

Just like the comic-book superheroes that gave Leonard Pitts Jr. that quote, the media's power also brings responsibility, he said last night.

Pitts, a syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald, spoke about the media's responsibilties in the HUB-Robeson Center's Heritage Hall. He described the stories of different cultural groups and various people as drums.

"We all have our drums," he said. "Listen."

Pitts said the media is the gatekeeper in society that determines which drums are heard.

"We are the ones who put the skin on stereotypes and the faces on fear," he said.

The lecture was a part of the semi-annual Foster Conference of Distinguished Writers. In addition to his media-focused evening lecture, Pitts spoke yesterday afternoon at the Penn State Faculty/Staff Club Forum luncheon.

Pitts began by telling his own life story right down to the details of his five children, his Scrabble-playing abilities, and his love of chocolate.

"You cannot know where I'm from, you cannot know what I'm about or who I am by just looking at me," he said, explaining why he began with his story.

The evening lecture drew communications students with notebooks in hand as well as self-described "big fans."

Marjorie Seward, a Penn State alumna who lives within walking distance of campus, said she always reads Pitts' columns.

"He tells it like it is," Seward said. "He just has a good way of putting things."