| Spring, 2002 Prof. Kim Pearson
217 Bliss Hall
x 2692
Resource Pages for
Journalism Students
Syllabus Pages
Projects Pages
Related Websites
|
Overview "This is the whole history
of newspapering....Journalism was overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly macho,
overwhelmingly drinkers, smokers, f-----s, all of these things. Women lost by it, blacks
lost by it, gays lost by it, everybody lost by it, because it did not reflect the
diversity of this country."
--Nan Robertson, Pulitzer-prize winning former reporter
for the New York Times, cf. Alwood, Edward, Straight News, NY: Columbia
University Press, 1995, p. 9
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 ultimately
led the American Society of Newspaper Editors to pledge that by 2000, the composition
of America's newsrooms would correspond to the the larger population. They failed. In
1995, 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.
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:
 | Discuss scholarship on the role that news coverage plays in the social
construction of race, class and gender
|
| Discuss whether traditional journalistic practices contribute to biased
and inaccurate reporting
|
| Raise questions and draw conclusions about the ethics and impact of
their own practice and development as journalists.
|
| AUTHOR OR EDITOR |
FULL TITLE |
PUBLISHER |
| Pamela Newkirk |
Within the Veil : Black
Journalists, White Media |
New York University Press |
| Wong, William |
Yellow Journalist: Dispatches
from Asian America |
Temple Univ Press |
| Williams, Linda |
Playing the Race Card |
|
| Kenneth J. Neubeck, Cazenave |
Welfare Racism |
Routledge |
Course components and grading breakdown
The class will be divided into several thematic units, with assignments
attached to each unit. The listing of the units and the grading breakdown is
presented below:
| The Structure and Function of the Media. Message Board Essay Assignment:
What is Truth? -- 10 percent of grade
|
| The Construction of Race and Gender. Assignment: In addition to message
board responses, submit an entry for the Interactive Dictionary of Racial Language.: 15
percent of grade
|
| Case Studies Assignment Memo: 15 percent of grade
 | Khallid Muhammad
|
| Welfare Reform act of 1996
|
| OJ Simpson
|
| The 1996 Democratic Fundraising Scandal
|
| Jesse Dirkhising
|
| NABJ
and NGLJA criticism of September
11 coverage. The invisible victims of the crash Flight 587.
|
|
| (Re)covering Hamlet, North Carolina Timeline Project: 20 percent
of grade
|
| Other Message Board homework assignments: 25 percent of grade
|
| Class participation: 15 percent of grade
|
January theme: The Structure and Function of the Media
21 Before we talk about race, gender and news media, it's helpful to know what we mean by
those terms. We're going to start with the media.
Read through The Four Theories of the
Press. This cheat
sheet is a helpful summary.
Also, read Newkirk Foreword and Preface. Comment on message
board. |
24 Much of our focus will be on the
Libertarian Theory, which stems from the John Milton's Areopagitica. (See the
"Milton" entry on this page for a quick summary. Read Newkirk,
Chapter 1. Respond to her claim about the differing media coverage of Min.
Louis Farrakhan and Charles Murray. Does Newkirk validate the Libertarian theory (by
contributing to the "self-righting" process) or undermine it? Post your
reactions to the message board. |
28 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 (on reserve). Mindich demonstrates that the New York Times,
using methods considered unimpeachable at the time, concluded that Ida Wells was a
"nasty mulatress wench." Discuss.
However, William Mc Gowan, author of Coloring
the News: How Crusading for Diversity has Ruined American
Journalism, argues the departure from the tenets of objective
journalism in the name of diversity bias is the real problem. |
31 Confused? Good. It's time to take
a look at some underlying principles. In their book, The Elements of Journalism,
Kovach and Rosensteil argue that journalism's first obligation is to "truth,"
and that "objective" reporting methods are the available means of divining
truth. But what do we mean by "truth" anyway? It's time for a little philosophical exploration.
After you've read, tackle the message board questions labeled,
"What is Truth?" . Note: Extra Credit Opportunity--
Environmental Justice Symposium, February 2. |
February theme: The Social Construction
of Race and Gender
"In this great future, you can't forget your past...
Bob Marley, "No Woman, No Cry"
4 Cultural theorists say that new media have
introduced an age of hyperreality, in which what we experience through media is more real
than what we
experience in real life. Yet, it can be argued that media representations of race, gender
and sexuality have always had powerful impact on the way we view ourselves and each
other. In the west, race has been an important component of identity since the 18th
century.But what is race? Do you agree with this writer
that in order to have a "we" there must be a "they"?
The United States has employed multiple and shifting definitions of race -- as the racial prerequisite cases
demonstrate.
In this excerpt from
a classic work of 19th-century journalism, Democracy in America Alexis de
Tocqueville argued that white supremacy was essential to American democracy. Note his
descriptions of the black woman and Indian woman in this chapter.
Extra credit opportunity: attend screening and discussion
of Bamboozled, sponsored by the
TCNJ African American Studies department. Write a response essay to the message board
about what the movie has to say about the construction and representation and commodification
of black identity |
7 Journalistic, artistic and scholarly images reinforced this
ideology. See Carla Williams' essay, "Naked,
Neutered or Noble," for an overview. In class, we'll talk at Williams' online
exhibition, "How to Read
Character," in which she photographs herself in the manner of 19th century
ethnographers. What is your reaction ot the images? Do you think that black women are
still seen as "Naked, Neutered or Noble?" Does defining black women in
this way help to define whiteness and maleness as well? Discuss. This author argues that there is there are
historical and contemporary links between race,
racism and the enduring differences in status between groups. Neubeck and Cazenave contend that our society, far from being libertarian in nature, is
actually a racial state. Read the first two chapters (p. 1-38) of Welfare Racism to
find out what they mean. Do you
agree? Discuss.
For an alternative view, check out this article by Myron
Magnet: "What
is compassionate conservatism?" Do you
think that
Like Neubeck and Cazenave, this author contends that journalists lack sufficient
background to recognize contemporary manifestations of scientific racism in academia and
public policy. See: Foundation for Fascism: The New Eugenics Movement
Discuss.
|
| 11 Read Newkirk, chapter 2. Now read Patricia Hill Collin's introduction
to Black
Feminist Thought which suggests ways in which race and gender oppression
restricted diversity in cultural production, including in journalistic work. By the
way, here is a wonderful example of the kind of work that is being recovered -- NF
Mosell's slim 1894 volume, The Work of
Afro-American Women. Look especially at the brief section on journalism.
Watch The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords
on reserve. |
14 What has emerged from our readings and discussions are
examples that suggest that the media have historically operated within an oppressive
ideological framework. Let's extend that in a very specific way, by looking at this
chapter of Black
Feminist Thought, "The Sexual Politics of Black Womanhood," in light of
what Newkirk tells us about coverage of the Central Park Jogger story. After you've read
both, look at the Message Board questions under "Group Exercise on Central Park
Jogger Story." In addition, read Newkirk, chapters 3-4 and be prepared to discuss
Hardy, et. al. vs. The Daily News, Inc. |
| 18 Newkirk, 5-6 Meanwhile, let's consider the impact of the
race/class/gender hierarchy on Americans who are neither black nor white. Check out the
"Identity and Acculturation" chapter of "Yellow Journalist." |
21 Newkirk, chapter 7: The Kerner
Legacy. We'll continue considering issues of identity and acculturation with this
oral history from Monica Lozano.
Lozano's story lends insight into the contrasting challenges of publishing newspapers for
Mexicans in Mexico and California in the mid-1900s. |
| 25 The race/class gender hierarchy also circumscribed white women. The Eleanor Roosevelt Press Conferences mark
the first time that a significant number of women reporters were allowed to cover the
White House. Note what they say about the way that their editors regarded news about the
Roosevelts, the remarks that were kept off the record, and their reactions to stories
about FDR and Eleanor's possible affairs. |
28 Entry due for Interactive Dictionary of Racial Language. In
class, we'll discuss the role of the race/sex/ gender hierarchy in shaping media
representations of sexual minorities. This profile of Leroy
Aarons serves as an introduction, and this report
from the center for the study of Sexual Orientation Issues in the News provides an
overview of the evolution of media coverage. And read the ISNA's statement on the V-Day challenge to get a better
understanding of the emerging Intersex movement.
We will also form the task forces for the case studies. |
March Theme: Case Studies
| 4 Introduction
to the Case Studies. Each groups assignment is to assume the identity of a particular
media organization. prepare distribute and present an assignment memo on the coverage of
that story for a taping of our new news roundup program, "Ewing Week in Review."
To get an idea of the general format of the show, watch PBS's Washington Week,
which airs on Friday nights and Saturday mornings. |
7 Part one of case study assignment: Each group will present a brief
factual summary of the story. Extra credit opportunity: attend and write response essay on
appearance of Leslie Feinberg, author of TransLiberation. |
11,14 SPRING BREAK |
| 18 Case study milestone: presentation of the race, gender and sexual
orientation issues in your case study. |
21 Case study milestone: Identify criteria for fair coverage of
the story. |
| 25 Case study assignment interview a working journalist or editor
with experience on the beat that your story falls in. Ask about the practical challenges
of covering the story. |
28 "Ewing Week in Review"
presentation of case studies. The program will have 6 segments. I'll serve as
moderator. In each segment, member of the group will briefly introduce the story and the
major recommendations for coverage. (two minutes Then other students will pose questions.
Then I will pose questions. (two minutes.) After the initial round, we'll open the floor
for discussion. |
April Theme: Hamlet
|