Chapter 17: Covering a Diverse, Multicultural Society

Overview: Ethics in Reporting on a Multicultural Society

Commission on Freedom of the Press. A Free and Responsible Press: A General Report on Mass Communication: Newspapers, Radio, Motion Pictures, Magazines, and Books. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1947), 26–7.

United States National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Report of the National Advisory Commission On Civil Disorders. (Washington, DC: US Govt. Printing Office, 1968), 211–12.

Bob Papper, “2008 women and minorities survey,” Radio-Television News Directors Association’s The Communicator, July/August 2008. (Academic archives)

“U.S. newsroom employment declines,” American Society of Newspaper Editors news release, April 16, 2009. http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?id=7323

US Census Bureau, “U.S. Hispanic population surpasses 45 million, now 15 percent of total,” news release, May 1, 2008. The bureau gave the following estimates as of July 1, 2007: Hispanic, 45.5 million; Black, 40.7 million; Asian, 15.2 million; American Indians and Alaska Natives, 4.5 million; and Native Hawiian and Other Pacific Islander, 1 million. Update: US Asian and Hispanic/Latino population growth rates have started to slow, according to the latest estimates from the US Census Bureau. http://www.prb.org/Articles/2009/hispanicasian.aspx?p=1

Gregory Favre and Bobbi Bowman, “Demographic changes reflect growing need for diversity coverage,” poynteronline, Jan. 9, 2009. An interview with Bowman, who has been the diversity and membership director of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=58&aid=156482

The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), founded in 1975 (http://nabj.org).

The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), founded in 1981 (http://www.aaja.org).

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), founded in 1982 (http://www.nahj.org).

The Native American Journalists Association (NAJA), founded in 1984 (http://www.naja.com).

The South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), founded in 1994 (http://saja.org).

The fatal traffic accident in Cheektowago, NY:

“The Color Line and the Bus Line,” Arlene Notoro Morgan, Alice Irene Pifer, and Keith Woods, Eds., The Authentic Voice (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 105–26. The chapter includes the transcript of the Nightline broadcast on May 22, 1996.

Video: The Nightline broadcast is on the DVD accompanying The Authentic Voice.

Eric Wray, “Reporting the Rashomon way,” The Authentic Voice, 126.

The Challenge of Covering Other Cultures

Joann Byrd, Respecting All Cultures: A Practical Ethics Handbook for Journalists (Washington, DC: American Society of Newspaper Editors, 2001), 7–11. The book may be ordered for $6 from ASNE; an order form is available at: http://www.asne.org/index.cfm?ID=2476

Robert J. Haiman, Best Practices for Newspaper Journalists (Arlington, Va.: The Freedom Forum’s Free Press/Fair Press Project, 2000), 43–4. You can download the book here: http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=12828

Av Westin, Best Practices for Television Journalists (Arlington, Va.: The Freedom Forum’s Free Press/Fair Press Project, 2000), 23-24. You can download the book here: http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=17279

Gigi Anders, “The crucible: Reporting on their own ethnic groups can be an excruciating challenge for minority journalists. Does it bring about better coverage?” American Journalism Review, May 1999. http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=368

Issues in Covering New Immigrants

Lucy Hood, “Naming names,” American Journalism Review, April/May 2006, Newsrooms are struggling with the dilemma of whether to use the names of illegal immigrants. Anonymous sources are under fire as threats to credibility. Yet identifying undocumented immigrants could lead to their deportation. http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4076

Gabriel Escobar, “The making of ‘The Other Pro Soccer,’ ” in Morgan, Pifer, Woods, eds., The Authentic Voice, 326.

Sonia Nazario, “Ethical dilemmas in telling Enrique’s story,” Nieman Reports, Fall 2006, 27–9.

US Census Bureau “U.S. Hispanic population surpasses 45 million, now 15 percent of total,” news release, May 1, 2008.

Pew Hispanic Center, “2007 national survey of Latinos: As illegal immigration issue heats up, Hispanics feel a chill,” Dec. 19, 2007.

Bobbi Bowman, “The historical context of immigration,” The American Editor, March 2007. “We need to give our readers more history and more context to deepen and enrich our stories. Stories that tell readers about what has come before help point to the future.” http://tae.asne.org/Default.aspx?id=115&tabid=65

Gilbert Bailόn, “Moving past clichés on immigration,” The American Editor, August/September/October 2006, 14–15. “Latino and Asian immigrants come from a variety of countries for a variety of reasons, and fair, contextual coverage means digging deeper.” http://www.asne.org/files/AmericanEditor851.pdf

When to Identify News Subjects by Race

Keith Woods, “Guidelines for racial identification,” Feb. 25, 2000. http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=4343.

Jay Fitzgerald, “Paper’s edict draws dissent,” Boston Herald, July 15, 2005. http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2005/07/paperas_edict_d.php

Steve Parker, “Is it right to say the suspect is black? Or Latino? Or white?”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 12, 2009. http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/a-conversation-about-race/general-news/2009/01/is-it-right-to-say-the-suspect-is-black-or-latino-or-white/

Making Coverage More Inclusive of the Entire Community

Yanick Rice Lamb, “Take time to examine your sources,” Quill, October/November 2002, 38. (Academic databases)

Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparity in Coverage

Cynthia Tucker, “Our opinion: Media blackout for this bride,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 8, 2005. (News databases)

Shaila K. Dewan and Sherri Day, “Police wonder if cabby erred before a killing,” The New York Times, May 14, 2004. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/14/nyregion/police-wonder-if-cabby-erred-before-a-killing.html

Bob Garfield and Av Westin, On the Media, National Public Radio, April 21, 2001. Garfield interviews Westin about racial discrimination he has observed in television news. http://www.onthemedia.org/yore/transcripts/transcripts_042101_avi.html

Stereotyping in Coverage

Shannon Kahle, Nan Yu and Erin Whiteside, “Another disaster: An examination of portrayals of race in Hurricane Katrina coverage,” Visual Communication Quarterly, Vol. 14, Spring 2007, 75–9. “The study uses a content analysis to explore portrayals of race in newspaper photographs from four national newspapers … . The study found that the photographic coverage of Katrina, while ostensibly sympathetic, reinforced negative stereotypes about African-Americans, while conversely depicting Caucasians in powerful roles.” (Academic databases)

Covering Gay and Lesbians in the News

National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (http://nlgja.org/).

Bao Ong, “Is sexuality part of the story?” http://nlgja.org/resources/toolbox_outing.html

National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, “NLGJA’s stylebook supplement on LGBT terminology,” http://nlgja.org/resources/stylebook.html.

The case of Maj. Alan G. Rogers:

·  Donna St. George, “Army officer remembered as hero,” The Washington Post, March 22, 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032103036.html

·  Deborah Howell, “Public death, private life,” The Washington Post, March 30, 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/28/AR2008032803062.html

Robert Dodge, “Gays and lesbians on September 11,” http://www.diversitywatch.ryerson.ca/media/archive01/02.htm

Case Study No. 20: When a Story Gets Its Subject Arrested

Sharyn Vane, “Too much information?”, American Journalism Review, June 1998. http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=1696

Barry Yeoman, “Good story, bad result: A profile puts the subject at risk,” Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 1998. (Academic databases)

Read the text of “Heart Without a Home”: [may be found under Miscellaneous Resources]

Additional Case Studies

The editors’ convention: A Chinese American journalism student was among a diverse group of college students invited to help produce a daily newspaper during the annual convention of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in April 2001. She was assigned to take a picture of the Capitol Steps, a Washington comedy troupe, during entertainment for the editors gathered at the convention. What she saw angered and humiliated her. The actors depicted Chinese in caricature. And the editors, who at their convention affirmed their commitment to racial diversity in their newsrooms, were laughing. [may be found under Case Studies, Chapter 17]

The York Race Riots: Thirty years after race rioting in York, Pa., the two newspapers in the city published retrospectives and noted that two homicide cases stemming from the rioting had never been solved. Local politicians and civic leaders objected to bringing up these unpleasant historical facts, and they put economic pressure on the newspapers.

A summary of the case. [may be found under Case Studies, Chapter 17]

·  A “Media Matters” television documentary on the case, “Reckoning in York, Pa.” Includes a video clip. http://www.thirteen.org/mediamatters/301/york.html