Situation Definition:
At Kimberly Dozier’s lecture, she mostly spoke about her time as a Journalist in Iraq. She began the lecture speaking about her time recovering from her injuries that were the result of a car bombing she was a victim of while she was overseas. A major struggle Dozier dealt with during her time overseas was remaining unbiased in her reporting, after spending years with the military personnel, it was difficult for her to not let any relationships get in the way of what her main objective was, to report on the war.
Analysis:
A journalist’s first and most important obligation is to remain truthful with his/her audience. If a reader claims or it can be proved that a journalist was biased in their work, it can cause social backlash on the reporter as well as the organization that they work for. Further, if the public feels that an article has not been entirely truthful in their work, the true objective of the story will be generally ignored and the publication will be criticized; essentially making all of the time and resources put into the story a waste. If her articles showed bias towards American soldiers and their actions, Dozier’s articles could have lost their appeal to the public and lost the trust of her readers.
For example, Hollaback’s catcalling video was originally intended to raise awareness of street harassment by having a woman walk through New York City while a hidden camera recorded multiple men ‘hitting on’ her. However, through the editing process, the vast majority of the clips that made it into the final cut showed African American men, implying that it is uncommon that a white man would harass a woman. Because of this, many people accused Hollaback of racial bias and fewer people reacted to the true message behind the video.
Conclusion:
Fortunately, Dozier was able to remain unbiased about the war in her writing throughout her time in Iraq. Personally, I am very impressed that she was able to do so after spending so much time with the soldiers and building friendships with many of them. I hope that I will have the same willpower if I am ever placed into a similar situation.
References:
Journalists Ethics Code. (n.d.). Retrieved March 28, 2015, from http://ethicnet.uta.fi/belarus/journalists_ethics_code
Journalists Should Remain Unbiased in Election Coverage. (2014, November 3). Retrieved March 28, 2015, from https://kimoc.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/journalists-should-remain-unbiased-in-election-coverage
Bahadur, N. (n.d.). Women Of Color React To That Viral Catcalling Video. Retrieved March 28, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/07/women-of-color-respond-viral-catcalling-video_n_6123800.html