Joseph Pulitzer used his newspapers to crusade for the rights of immigrants, the poor and the working class. Ray Stannard Baker brought Jim Crow laws and lynching to the attention of the American people. And Nelly Bly went undercover in a New York insane asylum to shine a spotlight on the plight of the mentally ill.

These pioneers of American journalism all have one thing in common — they were also pioneers of social change.

Award-winning investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist Amy Goodman will come to Otterbein University’s campus to speak about the role of independent media in promoting social change, peace and justice in a free, public lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 22, in The Fritsche Theatre at Cowan Hall. The lecture will be followed by a book signing at 9 p.m. in Roush Hall.

Tickets are required for the lecture and are available at the Cowan Hall Box Office, (614) 823-1109. Seating is assigned and there is a limit of two tickets per person.

Goodman will also meet with classes and record an episode of her show, Democracy Now!, at Otterbein’s television studio during her visit, which is sponsored by the Vernon L. Pack Distinguished Lecture Series

Goodman serves as host of Democracy Now!, airing on more than 1400 public television and radio stations worldwide. She is the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for “developing an innovative model of truly independent grassroots political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media.” The Independent of London called Goodman and Democracy Now! “an inspiration,” and pulsemedia.com has placed her at the top of their 20 Top Global Media Figures list.

Goodman is a 1998 recipient of the George Polk Award for the radio documentary she co-produced, “Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria’s Oil Dictatorship,” which exposed the oil company’s role in the killing of two Nigerian villagers on May 28, 1998. The piece also won the Golden Reel for Best National Documentary from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Goodman has also won numerous awards for another radio documentary she co-produced, “MASSACRE: The Story of East Timor,” including the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Silver Baton, the Armstrong Award, the Radio/Television News Directors Award, as well as awards from AP, UPI, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The author of five New York Times bestsellers, Goodman’s latest book, Breaking the Sound Barrier, proves the power of independent journalism in the struggle for a better world. She has co-authored, with brother and journalist David Goodman, three other bestsellers: Standing Up to the Madness, Static, and The Exception to the Rulers.