Situation Definition
The speaker that I chose to do Blog 3 on is John Eligon, a New York Times reporter based out of Kansas City. As a national correspondent for the Times he covers race issues and police violence protest in our nation’s Heartland. Eligon started his talk by giving background information on himself. He talked about how writing is a painstaking process for him and that he likes to report more than write. He also talked about how it could be hard being a black journalist covering such tough topics in the section of the country where it is mostly white people. One ethical issue that caught my attention is how being black can have an effect on his reporting. The other ethical issue that how he lets his presence do the story telling.
Analysis
In my first ethical issue involving about John Eligon is how race can be a factor while reporting. Eligon gave some great examples about this at his talk on Wednesday night. The first example is when he was telling us a story about how he was in Nebraska interviewing people about a recent senate race. He was interviewing mostly white people then when he got to the last house on the street and the police showed up. Eligon questioned why the police were interrogating him and they answered because the neighbors saw a suspicious black male roaming down their block. There was a quote from an article on Penn States database that said “This racism is rooted in the country’s imperial past, with feelings of racial superiority and crude nationalism now deeply embedded in the dominant culture.” (Ethics for Journalism pp.71-73).
Another example is when Eligon was at a neo-Nazi festival in Germany. Eligion said the far-right groups were advertising these events. He was there on a fellowship. He told the audience he goes to places where he usually doesn’t fit in. While he was there he saw a man with a confederate flag shirt on. Eligon asked why are you wearing that shirt? The man responded “I want to show solidarity for the American south.” Then when a festival official was talking he asked the crowd if anyone saw the black New York Times reporter. He then unbuttoned his shirt and was wearing a KKK shirt.
My second ethical issue is how Eligon lets his presence do the story telling. Eligon was telling this story on how he covered the 2014 Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. He interviewed people at Michael Brown’s apartment complex. He explained to us that when the white reporters tried to interview the black residents they got turned away. While the black reporters got invited into their apartments.
Eligon explained to the audience that he tries to take his experiences and tries to infuse to help people with knowledge. Eligon tries to put himself in others peoples shoes as much as he can. He explains how the more information you get the easier the writing is going to be. He also said while interviewing people he wants to get out of his comfort zone. Getting out of his comfort zone makes him more aware. Finally, when he talks to people he tries to make it a conversation. In the scholary source that I found on the Penn State’s database there is a quote that says “Good reporting is also now being decided by audiences.” (Quill, 27).
Conclusion
In conclusion, I thought that John Eligon’s talk was very informative. I really enjoyed his Q&A after his talk. One lesson I have learned is that if you are a journalist you are going to be put in situations where you might feel uncomfortable. It is important to discuss these issues because if you are going to be a journalist you need to know these ethical issues.
References
The Media Industry’s Future. (2012). Quill, 100(4), 27. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=79199666&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Chapter 6: Race/anti-racism matters. (2001). In Ethics for Journalists (pp. 71–83). Taylor & Francis Ltd / Books. Retrieved from http://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ufh&AN=17153585&site=ehost-live&scope=site