The Foster-Foreman speaker that I heard was John Eligon, a journalist based in Kansas City and a correspondent for the New York Times. Eligon writes on racial issues and has written about major events such as the death of Nelson Mandela and the Winter Olympics in Turin. Eligon shared a lot of insight into his beliefs on journalism and how he feels that opinions and background in pieces are important as long as the story isn’t about you. His major points included bringing the writer into the story but letting the reporting do it for you and to put out the information to show exactly where the people you’re writing about are coming from. He ended his speech with three main points: put yourself in your subject’s shoes, get out of your comfort zone, and give a little in order to get something.
The first point I want to talk about is how he discussed the importance of letting your readers know the background in which these subjects come from. This goes hand in hand with ethical journalism and seeking and reporting the truth. The Society of Professional Journalism’s Code of Ethics states, “the public is entitled to as much information as possible to judge the reliability and motivations of sources” (SPJ, 2018). Eligon talked about this when he relayed his experience talking to a man named Gordon Cotton, a man who believe that “slavery did some good for people” (Eligon, 2018). Eligon gave as much background about Cotton as possible throughout his story to show exactly what type of lifestyle and family he comes from. This allows the reader to understand Cotton’s views as well as make their own judgement of him.
This also goes along the ethical view of providing context. The Code of Ethics says, “take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify in promoting, previewing, or summarizing a story” (SPJ, 2018). David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his coverage of the Vietnam War, discussed how important context is in a story. He said, “the context of the stories is often more important than the event itself” because it gets the “stories into the minds of the people” (Halberstam, 1996). This is what Eligon expressed in his speech and the importance of letting the audience know all the information surrounding the story and not just the story itself because it could be misconstrued.
He also discussed putting yourself in the shoes of your sources which goes along with Eligon’s point of providing context. Eligon visited Germany recently and found himself at a Nazi sympathizer festival, talking to two men with confederate flags on their shirts. He started talking to them and wanted to understand why they were wearing those symbols. This goes along with the ethical standard of diversity and seeking the “sources whose voices we seldom hear” (SPJ, 2018). He put himself in the shoes of the Nazi sympathizers to understand where they were coming from and why they believed what they believe. Many people don’t hear that side of why people, like Nazi sympathizers, believe in the values they do. Eligon follows the rules of ethics with the advice he gave to the audience.
Eligon opened my eyes to different ways to go about being a journalist. It’s important to tell all sides of the story as well as letting the story tell itself. Everyone comes from a different background which leads to vastly different experiences. It’s important to put out all the information to show where these people come from and to show how their background has shaped them into the kind of person they are today. There shouldn’t be any opinions from the journalist but providing all the context will allow the readers to form their own opinions.
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