I went to see Doug Blackmon speak at the Freeman auditorium at the HUB on Thursday. Doug spent most of his professional career working for the Wall Street Journal. He gained widespread fame and popularity after he released his Pulitzer prize winning book, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War I.
Two main issues that jumped out at me while listening to Blackmon speak were the matters of writing about race, and how to remain impartial while writing about events such as those he encountered while in Croatia. The idea of writing about race is an ethical issue that interests me because it is such a sensitive issue and it seems like it would be difficult to properly navigate. Meanwhile, remaining impartial while almost being killed by artillery also seems like a very difficult task.
There were numerous reasons why the concept of race was interesting to me during Blackmon’s speech. First off because he has had great success writing about it, and second because he is a white man writing about discrimination against African Americans. Blackmon mentioned when asked by an audience member that white people writing about the discrimination African Americans have more success because people do not assume they are biased in their writing. Meanwhile, according to Issac Bailey, writing for Nieman Reports, black journalists are often coerced into writing about matters that effect the black community and put into a difficult position. Bailey writes, “Committing to telling such stories—knowing they deserve topshelf journalistic attention—can make you feel as though you’ve effectively banished yourself to the ghetto of the newsroom because white colleagues believe they are less important than stories about politics or national security. Refusing or shying away from doing them can make you feel complicit in media that frequently distort the image of black families and other groups.”(Bailey 1). This shows how there is an ethical issue in news rooms over who even writes the stories.
Blackmon’s story about driving frantically down a highway while artillery was coming down from the mountains on one side and a storm was coming in from the ocean was a very interesting listen. One question I had about this dangerous event was how he manage to continue objectively reporting on the war when he had almost been killed by one side. Blackmon did not say much about this but mentioned he had many different run ins with authorities on both sides of the war. The fact that he continued to objectively report on the war is impressive and something that I cannot imagine anyone can appreciate unless they are in that situation. Stephen Ward writes that, “Impartiality in journalism means: caring enough about reaching the truth to not prejudge the story before inquiry; to be willing to step back critically from one’s beliefs to learn from others; to follow all of the facts wherever they lead.” (Ward 1). Ward seems to believe remaining impartial shows that you care so much about the truth that you are willing to put any bias you may have aside to report exactly what happened.
In conclusion I thoroughly enjoyed Doug Blackmon’s speech and learned a lot. I learned that covering race is such a sensitive topic that black journalists are often encouraged to cover. I also learned that even in 2018 the color of someone’s skin often determines whether they are considered ideal for writing a story or not. I also realized that being impartial is the best way to show how much a journalist cares about their position and the material they are covering. Both of these issues are important to discuss because both do not seem to be going anywhere. The race issue is something that should go away and in an ideal world there would not be any need for journalists to write about racism but based on history that seems to be a long way away if it ever happens. Meanwhile being impartial in reporting is important because it shows journalists care about discovering the truth and it is something that should continue to be appreciated for the sake of good journalism.
Ward, S. J. A. (2012). The emotional commitment to objective journalism. Media (11982209), 15(3), 65–66. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=91616698&site=ehost-live&scope=site+
BAILEY, I. (2018). “WE HAVEN’T FULLY GRAPPLED WITH HOW MUCH WE UNWITTINGLY JUDGE JOURNALISM THROUGH A WHITE LENS”: Newsrooms need to examine biases and decisions about which journalists cover stories about race. Nieman Reports, 72(1), 32–33. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=128189537&site=ehost-live&scope=site