Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery spoke at Schwab Auditorium about his experiences in the world of journalism and his work on the Pulitzer Prize-winning piece, “Fatal Force”, based on data collected from police killings and the lack of a federal government database for such incidents.
Lowery presented a number of ethical issues to the Penn State crowd, most notably the issues of lack of diversity in the newsroom and building trust with interview subjects to strengthen reporting.
In the middle of his talk at Schwab, Lowery keyed in on the significance of having a diverse newsroom to represent the diversity of this country.
“We cover a nation that’s really diverse and really complicated, which is why I think it’s important that our newsrooms are equally diverse and equally complicated,” Lowery said.
Currently, minorities make up 17 percent of newsrooms nationally while the nation is comprised of 39 percent minorities, according to Asian American Journalists’ Association’s Voices report — “Missed deadline: The delayed promise of newsroom diversity” (Frissell, 2017).
The report hits on this issue and reaches an important conclusion that despite the fact that it is 39 years since the American Society of News Editors stated that the industry needed more parity to reflect the population, newsrooms are still mostly comprised of white males.
The issue is about representation and the ability to reach different audiences, which in turn can help cover a range of topics more thoroughly than if you have people of similar backgrounds (Lipinski, 2016).
Lowery also discussed during his talk about how he builds trust with his interview subjects and what he has seen work in the past for getting these subjects to open up more. The ethical issue that comes into play when trying to build this trust is how to do it without deceiving.
Lowery said that time equals trust, and that sometimes it is best to start of with the subjects speaking off the record to build that trust. He also discussed the common misconception that reporters show up with a set list of questions or looking for a soundbite.
The key in trust in reporting without deceiving is consistently being truthful and forthcoming with information about what you are trying to do. It is important to have trust and credibility from the public in the news business (Johnson and John, 2017).
While these ethical issues are on opposite ends of the spectrum, each has impacted Lowery’s career in journalism. His knowledge in both is important to bring it to the forefront of the discussion, while it also should be at the forefront of the national discussion of journalism ethics because of the impact that it has not only in the news business, but also on the general public.
References
Frissell, Peregrine (2017). Missed deadline: The delayed promise of newsroom diversity. Asian American Journalists’ Association’s Voices.
Johnson, K. A., & John, B. S. (2017). Citizen Journalists’ Views on Traditional Notions of Journalism, Story Sourcing, And Relationship Building. Journalism Studies, 18(3), 341-357.
Lipinski, A. M. (2016). You Are Who You Hire. Nieman Reports, 70(1), 2-3.