On October 18th Wesley Lowery spoke for the Foster-Foreman Conference series about his career in the field of journalism. Lowery writes for the Washington Post covering primarily law enforcement, and justice, but he works in other fields as well. His current work involves working with data of police shootings. Most memorable coverage is of the “Black Lives Matter” movement beginning in Ferguson, Missouri.
In Ferguson, Lowery covered the protests that were a result of the shooting of Michael Brown and was arrested while covering the riots when police shut down a McDonald’s he was using to report from. Lowery’s talk was primarily focused on his career and observations he has made while working. Based on this talk, two issues that brought intense ethical messages to me included when Lowery spoke about his experience with police brutality and reporting objectivity.
During his talk and interview Wesley Lowery addressed many of the issues in police brutality, one that stuck with me was when he was asked about the most dangerous situation he has ever been in. He described this story very well and told the audience about how he had been in the front lines with the Black Lives Matter protesters facing cops with tear gas and tanks threatening to open fire. This is when Lowery saw first hand a completely different interaction with the police then he was used to as a journalist. His normal interactions with the police were overall positive talking about how he had never seen this other side of the police.
From a citizen’s standpoint police brutality covers the full range of police practices. “The line between proper and improper force is a rather fuzzy one” according to Edward Maguire and David Duffee (p.160). Comparing Lowery’s experience and research on police brutality to this study done by Maguire and Duffee both mentioned that police brutality has grey areas when discussing the use of force. Lowery’s own personal experience with the police includes working alongside the police to cover a story, to later getting arrested and becoming the story himself. His stories and facts about his experience with the police were very informative and carried strong ethical messages.
Another topic mentioned in the talk with Wesley Lowery was his experience reporting in his field. He was asked about his experiences gathering information, where it took him and more. Lowery’s answer to these topics brought up interesting ethical messages. When he discussed gathering information he stated that there are no public records available for access that provide information on the fairness of a police shooting and conflicts of interest cases in court with the police. This carried a strong message for me seeing as these are possible ethical dilemmas within the justice system and the files are not available to the public.
Secondly, Lowery was asked about staying objective when reporting about a topic or event that he personally has opinions and thoughts on. He responded by stating “I don’t believe in objectivity.” Lowery mentioned his idea that objectivity can lead to blind spots when reporting so he said he aims at being fair when reporting. This was one of the strongest messages during his speech for me because it offered a new viewpoint on a topic and lesson that is important to all journalists. “Defining objectivity in journalism is not straightforward.” Steven Maras addresses the wide variety of definitions for objectivity stating that every definition depends on a different concept of what objectivity is, and how it should operate. Lowery’s own definition of objectivity is as far from a classroom setting as possible and that is why it was the strongest message in the speech.
In conclusion, the most significant ethical messages that I gathered from Wesley Lowery’s presentation were about police brutality and how grey the area is between proper and improper force. The second message was when he spoke about his career in reporting and asked about objectivity. He gave a very strong answer stating he doesn’t follow an objective reporting style but rather a fair one. These two topics discussed during Lowery’s presentation were the strongest to me and gave me a different perspective on lessons normally taught in class.
References
Maguire, E. R., & Duffee, D. E. (Eds.). (2015). Criminal justice theory: Explaining the nature and behavior of criminal justice. Routledge.
Maras, S. (2013). Objectivity in journalism. John Wiley & Sons.