Thoughts on Class pt. 4

I wish we had gotten to see more interesting examples of media going deep into reporting on an ethnic community. I felt being showed the snippets of 'Barbershop' was effective and should have taken more importance than talking about it. We spent the whole class talking about seeing it, then saw it, then adjourned. There was a mismanagement of class time that day for sure.

In general, I feel the class has progressed too slowly. I am not complaining because having this easy class has been the one saving grace for my hectic 18 credit semester. I am not wishing we had more assignments, but I am wishing the class had more involvement. To be effective and have a lasting effect on our future careers, we should have gone on class trips to difficult places and then held reflections afterward.

The actual class meetings have simply reflections for our individual listening post experiences and I feel it had to go further. We had to get a chance to watch each other in a different setting to help each other grow. I know for a fact that there are people in this course who never broke through the fears of their listening post and it's because they didn't have enough hands on training to do it.

Belated Thought on a Cross-Cultural Halloween

The internet-phenomenon Antoine Dodson got his start by being interviewed by NBC affiliate WAFF-48 News in a news clip about the local police searching for a man who tried to rape his sister in Huntsville, AL.

Mr. Dodson's gifted speech delivery skills and sassy inflection got him noted by a group who "auto tunes the news." The group used his interview to create a song that was actually incredibly catchy.

His success and uniqueness made him a popular Halloween costume. The official costume was sold on Mr. Dodson's site. It was based on the outfit that he wore in the news package that made him famous. The pieces included a raggedy afro wig with a red bandana around it, a black tank top, and red cargo shorts.

I was surprised that one of my anglo acquaintances chose to dress up as Mr. Dodson. My acquaintance is snow white, but decided to dress like Mr. Dodson and the costume actually worked. I saw a photo of him and I instantly knew what it was. I was dismayed to see he had added fairy wings as a response to Dodson's sexual orientation, but in general the costume left a positive impression on me. It was nice to see that a cross-cultural success Mr. Dodson has become through the coverage he was given by a reporter.

Who would have thought...

Today I interviewed for an internship with Scripps network. My first choice of which channel to work for was Travel channel. The interviewer asked me if I had an understanding of other cultures and if I had developed any sensitivity to them. I was actually able to use this class as an example!

I told her I have been in a lecture/discussion class about multi-ethnic reporting. I explained to her how this class has taught me to be more sensitive to how the media portrays minority groups in a socio-politic-economical view point. She was really impressed by how well I was able to articulate the ideas of cross-cultural journalism.

It made me realize that I am actually learning from this class!

And even if I had known all of this before, at least now I have a credible background in it =)

Hmmm...

An article can be tinged with bias just by using a single word with a noted connotation.
It kinda makes me think about all the times I read an article and understood the bias, but never did anything about it.

A blatant example that comes to mind is the "terror mosque". these days the talk of the nation is the "terror mosque" supposedly being built on Ground Zero. Fox 'news' network started calling the religious community center by this nickname, showing their fear fostering bias. Their facts were also cherry-picked because the community center is actually being built a block to a few blocks away.

Isn't it insane that the most watched news network is basically flinging dung at the Muslim populous? What people would do for ratings!

So like I said before, it makes me sad to think about the amount of people who watch this network and do not think twice about the bias.

What it's all about pt. 2

“Some people say stories about minority communities often sound like visits to the zoo: "Oh, look at all the animals and the funny things they do!" Do you agree? If so, how can we prevent that?”

All genres of articles can be accused of not going deep enough. I think ethnic or cultural reporting is a genre that should not be slighted.
Ethnic reporting is a genre that is more affected by slight than any other because the groundwork for human success is to be able to work together. Articles on minority communities have opportunities to break down barriers than a lecture or a PSA announcement. Articles tell stories of real people. I believe there is still a majority if the U.S. population that believes in newspapers enough to trust that what they report is true.

If an article on immigration simply quotes that AZ congressman who said illegal immigrants “multiply like rats” to produce “anchor babies”, using him as an “expert”, the article does a huge injustice to that population because media is their only voice.

The best way to prevent this from happening is to adhere to a strict standard for news stories. The article must quote as many (or even more) regular people or people who are affected by the situation as it does experts. That is something we really don’t see enough because journalists struggle to maintain credibility and they assume the public will trust a seemingly educated and reputable source more than a real person who might not give an intellectual sounding quote.

"What it's all about" part 1

“Do you have to be one to cover one? Should editors assign reporters of the same ethnicity or background as their subjects? Is it better, worse or does it even matter?”

I think editors should know their reporters well enough to know what communities they could handle covering.

Based on the story I heard about Professor Reisner’s mistaking “the gifts” for presents in an article about the nativity story, I believe the editor should have made a better judgment call. If an editor knowingly sends a Jewish reporter to cover something as religious as the nativity story, it’s their job to ensure the reporter doesn’t make a mistake because he simply didn’t know better.

I know that there are Jewish people who have a lot of knowledge of other religions. Thus, I definitely believe you can send a person of any culture to cover another culture as long as that person knows about the other culture that the editor is sending them to cover.

Thoughts on class pt. 3

Everyone is finally settled in with their listening posts and the discussions are moving along more smoothly.
Soraya is still my saving grace because as long as she entertains us with personal accounts of inter-racial/inter-cultural dating then the rest of us can sit calmly and enjoy the class period without having to share anything about our own listening posts.

Let me explain the whole "inter-racial/inter-cultural" thing. Soraya is a black girl who doesn't have a hang up about being "genuinely black" nor does she have a hang up about being "too black". She doesn't see her color as something that limits her to any role. The reason color plays a non-existant role for this particular intelligent young woman is because she is culturally mixed. She has lived amidst Hispanics and upper-class white people for different parts of her life which gives her perspective on their cultures and that perspective is what defines her to any "role". That perspective allows her to date a down-to-earth white guy just as easily as a down-to-earth black guy and it is also what makes it impossible for her to date a black guy or a white guy who have cultural hang ups. One description she gave was that she must have a big ass and dance well. I really was amused hearing the story of her date that ended when the boy expected such another woman to come out of this girl!