Situational Definition
New York Times national correspondent John Eligon came to Penn State’s Forster-Foreman Conference Wednesday night to speak on matter of the racial climate within the United States, dealing with neo-nazi’s as a black journalist, and how to remain ethically sound in spite of hatred being thrown his way. Starting as a sports journalist, Eligon covered such events as the Boston Marathon, of which he participated, before eventually moving onto covering more pressing issues such as race relations in not only his newfound home country of America, but globally as well.
Analysis
Eligon spoke on the utmost importance on presenting unbiased news. In a world where every network is immediately labeled as “right” or “left” winged, he tries to the best of his ethical abilities to present two sides to every story. When reporting on events that enticed or symbolized racism, Eligon made sure to leave that manner out of it; be it a confederate flag to borderline racist remarks, Eligon understood that the only way to convey a proper story is to leave those subtleties out of it. Its easy to label someone or something as racist, but it is both credible and impressive to sell two sides to a story.
In the past there have been a lot of unverified information propagandizing the idea that white people are just innately going to always pair with white people, but that’s not true. “New research on social identity theory suggests otherwise. New York University Psychologist Jay Van Bavel has found that humans can identify with another in-group rapidly, simply by being paired up to complete tasks” (Moon, 2018) John Eligon, regardless as to whether or not he knows this, is doing exactly that; challenging those who come from different ethnic backgrounds to literally face their discrimination through talking to him and giving him their time. By attending these neo-nazi rallies Eligon is able to ethically bridge a divide between himself and his counterparts, moving forward in racial discourse.
What enthralled me most was how he was able to hold composure in adversity; as a minority, Eligon preaches rightfully so to not judge a book by its cover. He did not know the situations of the lives of the people he was interviewing, so he made sure to give them his full and open mind before labeling anything as discriminative. Especially so as a black man, Eligon avoids any possible criticism in misrepresenting “white” people by going about it in this way; it’s important for him to present the new norm in objective reporting (Mellado, Humanes, Ramirez, 2017).
Conclusion
One thing I love about Penn State is its growing recognition to promote the voice of the minority. Growing up in an all-white male environment I saw the world from a puzzled one-sided view, knowing that there was more out there, but being unable to hear that representation. John Eligon showed how to properly and eloquently go about presenting any story. To, as hard as it may seem, leave our prejudices behind, and proceed to hearing both sides. The idea to leave out certain discriminating information such as a confederate flag is a tip I will carry with me throughout my career; that ability to disconnect the outer from the inner is something that is so rarely presented, yet ever so important in political journalism
Works Cited
Mellado, C., Humanes, M. L., & Márquez-Ramírez, M. (2017). The influence of journalistic role performance on objective reporting: A comparative study of Chilean, Mexican, and Spanish news.
Moon. (2018). Group Cognition. Retrieved from http://www.psych.nyu.edu/vanbavel/lab/research.html