I’m studying to be a journalist. In my first ever JLM course, at the end of the semester, we finally talked about ethics after weeks and weeks of spelling and basic grammar lessons. The conversation lasted one half of a 3 hour class and was set up as a Q&A by the teacher: Hypothetical ethical situations and how a journalist should act in such a position.
Some of these questions were just simply “If a story involved your family or friends, should you be able to take a side in writing it?” or “If as an editor you come across bias in a story that you agree with or think is true, what should you do?” I was lucky enough to have a great teacher who had been in the business for many years and had a great outlook on the career, and I shared in her shock and appall at the responses from some of the class.
Of all our guest speakers in the class, none were as informative as “A fourth-year journalism student at Ryerson University interested in representations of minorities in mainstream media“ would have been -- in providing a cautionary example for all young journalists of course. Aeman Ansari, a blogger featured on that bastion of unbiased information, The Huffington Post.
”I am a person of colour and a journalist and so there are two conflicting voices inside my head. But in this case one voice, that of a person of colour, is louder and my conscience does not allow me to be impartial. I have to take a side.”
This woman has no place passing on information to the public. The fact that Huff Post is featuring her is evidence of the same ignorant and dangerous ideas I heard from first-semester communications majors in class: Impartiality is overrated, objectivity is pointless and old-fashioned, and blogging is the future of journalism.
I had to speak up when I heard this in class, when I heard this at the start of the GamerGate protests, and when I heard this “journalist” say this in a blog post. Kicking white people out of a public event or barring their entry outright is only racist though, and that isn’t really a problem unless you’re white. Not to mention they were journalists themselves: I wonder how Aeman Ansari would feel if an event barred her entry for being a different race. Would she feel like she was being wronged?
gummygunk
2087
prguitarman
annaxmalina
theartofmadeline
germansingergirl
yousharknotpass
areudirty