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2020年10月5日讀畢需時 2 分鐘

Blog6:Bias and Objectivity-Journalists Need to Take Coverage of the LGBTQ Community Seriously

已更新：2020年10月11日

I watched the film Kiki last semester. The documentary features LGBTQ youth of color. I was impressed by the stories of people in this community. This film really shows a well-rounded picture of every individual in this group by capturing their genuine emotions and words. After watching this film, I think people in this community are optimistic and lovely, even though they have to go through difficult situations, including health concerns and bias. However, there are still not enough qualified journalistic works related to the LGBTQ community nowadays. LGBTQ communities still suffer from inappropriate reporting nowadays.

There are not enough platforms where the LGBTQ community can voice their opinions. According to the report from RealClearPolitics, LGBTQ issues have been covered less in mainstream media outlets since the election of Donald Trump. Plus, according to the research from Advocate, terms related to LGBTQ have been seen less for the past three years.


- Frequency of Terms in main news outlets by Advocate


Besides the lack of voices from the LGBTQ community in mainstream media outlets, homophobia views presented in the news or social media can also hurt the LGBTQ community to a large extent. According to an article written by Mark O'Connell, a psychotherapist in private practice, homophobia is a reflexive reaction of fear and hatred to gay men dressed and behaving like women. Under this circumstance, homophobia can also contain misogyny. For example, I saw some news related to gay men. The journalists emphasize the “woman-like” qualities of them, instilling stigma in this group of people.


In terms of solutions to this, I think journalists should read through the GlAAD Media Reference guide. First, the guide asks us to mind the language while writing the LGBTQ issue. There are problematic terms that we should avoid, including biologically male, sex change, transgenderism. Also, I also agree that we should integrate LGBTQ people into stories that may not directly be related to LGBTQ issues. People in the LGBTQ community live normal lives just like everyone else. I went to a voting defense event this week. Even though this event was not directly focused on the LGBTQ community, our group also interviewed people in this community, trying to include their voices.


Reference:



2020年9月27日讀畢需時 2 分鐘

Blog 5: Bias and Objectivity- Bias in Media Coverage of Crime

已更新：2020年10月11日


The video talks about the importance of unbiased news stories related to crime. It reminds me of one unforgettable conversation last year. I once wanted to take a short trip to St. Louis. The taxi driver told me not to go to the east part of St. Louis. I asked him why. “It is dangerous because there are a lot of black people there,” he said. I did not think deeper into this statement at first. But after I got off the taxi, I kept thinking and asked myself, “Does the high rate of crime in a certain area result from black people?”


There may be implicit bias in people’s understanding of the connection between crime and certain races. Media plays an important role in building up an image of criminals, which will lead to stereotypes towards certain groups of people among the public. “A 2002 study found that people estimated that 40% of those who committed violent crimes were African American when the actual rate was 29%,” Nazgol Ghandnoosh, research analyst at The Sentencing Project, said in an interview of On the Media, a weekly radio program. When talking about crime stories, journalists tend to overstate black participation in crimes. In addition, according to the article of the Center for American Progress, the news media also tend to present black crime suspects as more threatening than their white counterparts. For instance, they may be more likely to depict black suspects in police custody.


In order to talk about this issue in newsroom practice, I want to use one of the news stories I covered during the summer as an example. The police asked the public to find another suspect related to this gunshot case. There was the information of the second suspect in its news release, including his race, height and weight. But the editor told me that we should not include the suspect’s race in my brief. He told me that they do not identify the suspect by race or anything that can be changed. They used to include this sort of information. However, when they described the suspect as a black male based on the police’s news releases in the past, it usually turned out that the suspect was not black in the end. Therefore, journalists at Missourian are cautious about identifying a suspect by race. I think all journalists should take a lesson from this.


Reference:


2020年9月21日讀畢需時 2 分鐘

Blog4:Bias and Objectivity-How to Cover People With Mental Illness?

We are going to talk about how to produce responsible journalistic works about mental health this week. Mental health has been an important issue in the United States. In fact, it can be even more serious than people realize. According to data provided by Mental Health First Aid, a national training program to teach the skills of deal with mental health problems, 46.4% of adults will experience a mental illness during their lifetime in the U.S. Thus, journalists need to know how to distinguish between successful reporting and poor reporting of mental health issues. Here are the basic guidelines that I summarize through research.

First of all, journalists need to avoid stigmatization of people with mental illness. Emma E. McGinty, the assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, conducted research with her co-workers on news media coverage of mental illness in the U.S. The research shows that the most frequently mentioned topic in related news stories was violence, which accounted for 55% of all news stories of mental illness. Under this circumstance, people may have negative attitudes towards people with mental illness, blaming them for conducting violent behaviors. In fact, somebody with mental illness is much more likely to be a victim of violence instead of being a perpetrator of violence, according to studies conducted by Patricia Owen, professor at St. Mary's University.

The irresponsible reporting may lead to stereotypes and stigmatization of people with mental illness, worsening their psychological condition. Besides, we also need to pay attention to the language of covering mental health issues. We can refer to the guidelines produced by team members of Time to Change, a social movement working to end mental health discrimination.




Second, journalists need to avoid overgeneralization of people with mental illness. In other words, we need to be aware that every person with a specific psychological condition does not necessarily have the same symptoms. For instance, not all people with depression are suicidal. What’s more, people with a diagnosis of the same mental illness may need different treatment. It is inappropriate for journalists to oversimplify the condition of people with mental health problems.

Finally, journalists should show love and patience to people with mental illness when they cover stories about this group of people. I recently read a book called “The Soloist.” It features a story that a journalist interacted with a street musician with schizophrenia. Even though the journalist met a lot of difficulties when he tried to make a connection with the street musician, he did not give up. He showed enough patience to listen to the musician’s story. The story shows a well-rounded picture of the musician, presenting his personality in a vivid way. Through reading the story, we can have a better understating of the complexity of schizophrenia. With humanity and love delivered by the author in this book, the readers may be more willing to offer help to people in the same condition.





Reference:

https://www.verywellmind.com/mental-health-stigmas-in-mass-media-4153888


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