October 12, 2005
Diversity in Journalism
"If we think of journalism as social cartography, the map should include news of all our communities, not just those with attractive demographics or strong appeal to advertisers. To do otherwise is to create maps with whole areas missing."
-The Elements of Journalism
This metaphor is especially helpful because it shows how journalism builds community. When one area is excluded the picture is incomplete. As journalists, we need to be attentive to issues of diversity. A sense of comprehensiveness cannot be reached without including news that affects people of different demographics.
This is not to say that we must include every nationality, race, gender, class, etc. as news, but to cover news that affects every nationality, race, gender, class, etc. The Elements of Journalism talks about a strong desire in the 80's to cover news that only affects the people that the ads target. Tying it back to the previous chapters, journalistic values must not be sacrificed to the business gods. Making journalism a business primarily dilutes the qualities of good journalism, therefore creating this dilemma.
Posted by EvanReynolds at October 12, 2005 9:20 PM
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Comments
I don’t understand. How can you have any kind of publication without turning it into a business nowadays? Even the Setonian—while it doesn’t sell for anything—tries to sell student awareness. We write about things going on on campus with the intentions of getting feedback.
Or did you mean something completely different?
Posted by: Valerie Masciarelli at October 14, 2005 1:27 AM