ASNE
study on race and credibility presented
By Courtney Watson
The most useful session I attended
at the Society of Professional Journalists Convention was a discussion
on covering race, led by Arlene Morgan, an associate dean at Columbia
University School of Journalism in New York. The session listed important
findings from the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ study on
race and credibility, then provided the audience a chance to discuss each
and Morgan to provide tips.
The first finding revealed
that people don’t trust journalists. To combat this public perception,
Morgan suggested forming an open dialogue in the newsroom or classroom
about skepticism, going over quotes with sources at the end of interviews,
taking stories to an expert for analysis and setting up a fact-checking
system like survey sheets for key article sources.
Morgan stressed the importance of finding the middle ground of stories
as a way of keeping credibility. She told the story of a shooting she
had covered that only exposed the two extreme points of view, predictably
divided by race.
“There was no middle,” she said.
The second finding revealed that people believed newspapers did not demonstrate
consistent respect for and knowledge of readers and communities. To remedy
this, Morgan suggested the use of more community voices in reaction stories,
better “zone coverage,” and experimentation in civic journalism.
A third finding of ASNE revealed the public believes news reflects the
point of view and biases of journalists. Many ideas were offered to combat
this perception, including reflection on stereotype terms like “right
wing,” “inner city” and “Arab terrorist” and fostering a better understanding
of who is in your community. Morgan also addressed the anecdotal lead,
noting that many see this lead as a way for journalists to guide readers
to a predetermined conclusion. Commentary and opinion labels mean little
to readers, she noted, making the burden of the newspaper all the more
difficult.
A fourth finding revealed that readers think newspapers chase and “overcover”
sensational stories. Morgan suggested help with this perception by getting
to the “why” of every story, especially standard reaction stories.
Findings five and six revealed that newsroom values and practices are
at times in conflict with the public’s priorities and that experience
with the press breeds criticism. These final findings led to a lengthy
discussion from those in attendance about the specifics of some newspaper
policies like commentaries and special circumstances like how to cover
a Ku Klux Klan rally or incidences of racial intolerance on college campuses.
Even more complex issues like how to recruit more minorities onto newspaper
staffs and how non-minorities can get to the heart of minority-themed
issues were addressed.
Morgan ended the discussion by telling her audience the process of changing
the way race was reported would be slow and difficult. “I don’t know if
we’re ever going to survive this bias issue,” she said, adding that many
new college programs have recently been put in place to begin dealing
with issues of this nature. “You can’t do this in three hours,” she continued,
urging journalists to look at the issue as a long-run option of building
stronger communities and newspapers through thoughtful, fair and balanced
coverage of all races and ethnicities.
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