English 307-03 |
Topics in Journalism: Race, Gender, and the News Media |
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Instructor: Kim Pearson Office: Bliss 217 Phone: x 2692 Fax: (609) 637-5112 email: kpearson@tcnj.edu |
Class Hours: TF -- 9:30 - 11:00PM Bliss Hall -- Room 234 OFFICE HOURS: 2:00-3:20 PM -- Thurdays and 3:30-4:50 Fridays, or by appointment |
Spring, 2001
Overview
The Social Responsibility of the Press
The First Amendment's guarantee of a free press is based on the notion that the best way to promote responsible, active citizenship is to encourage a free marketplace of ideas. To that end, journalists are encouraged to pursue and report verifiable truths, without fear or favor.
However, an honest consideration of our history requires that we admit that for most of it, American media ignored or marginalized the views and experiences of large segments of our society. Some of these omissions were the result of conscious biases. For example, before 1970, many editors believed that women reporters were only capable of covering "women's issues." In addition, there was a time when respected newspapers in the North and South gave announced lynchings as if they were social events.
The Kerner Conundrum
In response to the riots of the 1960s, then-President Johnson commissioned a panel of experts to analyze America's racial divide and propose solutions. The resulting Kerner Commission Report concluded that the press helped to create the racial divide, noting that, "The press, has been basking in a white world, looking out of it, if at all, with a white man's eyes and a white perspective." (We Cannot Rest). The report ulitimately stimulated the American Society of Newspaper Editors to pledge that by this year, the composition of America's newsrooms would correspond to the the larger population. They failed. Last year, they moved the target date back to 2025 (NABJ Disappointed. The number of minority students who seek journalism training is still relatively small. The number of journalism students of color who seek or stay in journalism careers is paltry. And while women constitute roughly half of the students enrolled in journalism education, newsrooms are still mostly male Journalism and Women's Symposium).
Not Just an American Media Problem
As we become more multicultural and interdependent, it is also clear that the issues facing American journalists resemble those confronting journalists around the world. In some countries, women and minority-group journalists face obstacles that remind Americans of the worst days of Jim Crow. Understanding the challenges faced by journalists in other countries can provide useful perspective and context. Accordingly, we will devote some attention to the a study of women's issues as presented in India, another democratic, multi-ethnic country with a free press.
It is clear that news organizations need more demographic diversity, it is equally clear that demographic diversity alone is insufficient. However, there is no consensus about what a better definition would be. Nor is there a consensus about what "real" diversity could or should accomplish (Diversity and the News). We only know that when journalists and media organizations fail to grapple with these issues, they perpetuate prejudice and division, instead of promoting understanding and a free exchange of ideas.
Thus, it becomes imperative that journalism students acquire tools for understanding the challenges inherent in the effort to rid news coverage and the news industry of bias. As a result of this course, students should be able to:
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Discuss scholarship on the role that news coverage plays in the social
construction of
race, class and gender
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Discuss whether traditional journalistic practices contribute to biased
and inaccurate reporting
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Discuss whether there are elements of traditional newsroom culture which
inhibit diversity efforts
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Discuss the impact of economic and technological change on these issues.
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Required Texts
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AUTHOR OR EDITOR |
FULL TITLE |
PUBLISHER |
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Pamela Newkirk |
Within the Veil : Black Journalists, White Media |
New York University Press |
| Shirley Biagi, Marilyn
Kern-Foxworth
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Facing Difference : Race, Gender, and Mass Media | Pine Forge Press |
| David T., Z. Mindich | Just the Facts : How 'Objectivity' Came to Define American Journalism | New York University Press |
| Ammu Joseph (Editor) and Kalpana Sharma | Whose News : The Media and Women's Issues | Sage Publications |
Important Websites:
| American Society of Newspaper Editors: Diversity Kiosk |
| Newswatch: The Story Behind the News: http://newswatch.sfsu.edu/. In particular, we will make use of their Style Guide for our assignments. |
| Freedom Forum |
| Society of Professional Journalists |
| The Poynter Institute |
| National Association of Black Journalists |
| National Association of Hispanic Journalists |
| Asian American Journalists Association |
| Native American Journalists Association |
| National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association |
| Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) |
| Accuracy In Media |
| Columbia Journalism Review |
| American Journalism Review |
Major Assignments:
A) Class participation (including Message Board contribution): 10 percentB) Chapter Quizzes: 20 percent
C) Content analysis project: 20 percent. Due February 6.
D) Independent research or reporting project. Last year, we produced a package of stories for The Signal, as well as a collection of interviews with minority journalists. This year's package will be a special supplement for unbound. Look at this NYU site for one example of the kind of package we might produce: 30 percent.
E) Final exam: 20 percent
Class Schedule
Unit One: What are the problems?
January 16:Class overview, policies, procedures. Self awareness survey.
| Read Chapter 3 of Facing Difference. Be prepared to respond to the discussion questions on the on the first 4 articles in class. |
January 19: Discussion of second half of Chapter 3.
| Take the online chapter quiz. |
| Read Newkirk Foreword and Preface. Comment on message board. |
January 23: Read Newkirk, Chapter 1. Post your reactions to the message board.
January 26: How can "objective" reporting be biased? Could our concept of objectivity be part of the problem?
| Read Mindich, Introduction, Chapters 5 and 6 for an historical view of the concept of objectivity. |
| For a modern analysis, see Framing the News. Are there implications for us? |
January 30: More discussion of Mindich.
| Also, read the Introduction to Whose News? How does the definition of news in Indian media differ from or resemble our own? Consider, as well, the social stratification reflected in the audiences for the media outlets discussed in Mindich and Whose News? |
February 2: Read Newkirk, Chapter 1. Respond to her claim about the differing media coverage of Min. Louis Farrakhan and Charles Murray.
| Does Mindich's analysis of Ida Wells' experience offer a way of understanding Newkirk's argument? |
February 6: Presentation of content analyses.
| Read Newkirk, chapter 2. |
February 9: Watch The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords.
| For a contemporary view of the black press, visit the National Newspapers Publishers Association. |
| Also, read: White Reporters Out! A Graduate of the Black Press Looks Back. |
February 13: Reading the lives of minority journalists:
| Chapter 4 of Facing Difference. Take the chapter quiz. |
| We'll also begin to brainstorm ideas for your reporting project. |
February 16: Read Newkirk, chapters 3-4.
| We'll discuss, in
particular, Hardy, et. al. vs. The Daily News, Inc. |
February 20: More discussion of Newkirk.
February 23: Newkirk, 5-6
February 27: Newkirk, chapter 7: The Kerner Legacy.
| Topics memo due for reporting project. |
| Consider this as you read Chapter 2 of Facing Difference. |
| Take the chapter chapter quiz. |
| Bring a copy of the Newswatch Style guide to class with you for
discussion. |
March 6: Situating newsroom culture in the larger culture.
| Read Chapter 1 of Facing Difference. Take the chapter chapter quiz. . |
March 9: Discussion of the status of the reporting projects.
| We'll talk about guidelines for avoiding some of the pitfalls that we've
identified so far. |
March 13: Annotated bibliography and interview log due.
| Also: Choose a chapter of Whose News? to summarize and present to the class after break. Your one-page summary should identify the major points of the chapter, and tell us something that surprised you, interested you or piqued your curiosity. Email your summaries to me by March 22 for posting on the projects page. |
March 16:
SPRING BREAK! ! !
March 23: Chapter presentations from Whose News?
March 30: First draft due. Jack Hasegawa on stereotypes of Asian Americans.
April 3: Chapter 5 of Facing Difference. Take the chapter quiz.
April 6: Conservative criticisms of minority and women-owned media. We'll
look at analyses by Accuracy in Media.
April 10: Gay issues gain
ground online. Research/reporting project updates
April 13: Reporting project due. Review for final exam.
Return to Syllabi Archive
created January 9, 2001