DIVERSITY IN JOURNALISM EDUCATION
by Leo E. Laurence; Member, National Committee on Diversity
A university scholar in Barcelona, Spain was surprised by the strong and often hostile reactions to my earlier blog postings discouraging the use of the phrase "illegal immigrant" by journalists.
Because of our constitutional presumption of innocence, only a judge can label a person as illegal in our system of jurisprudence. Therefore, the blog posting contended, journalists should avoid using either "illegal immigrant" or "illegal alien" unless that person has been found guilty in federal court.
Reaction to that blog was vicious! Mike and Lesa Meyer argued that our laws are "only meant for American citizens, not law breaking non-citizens. They have not earned the right to be protected by American law." Obviously, that is inaccurate, as a matter of law.
Jeff sent an e-mail calling me "an enemy coldier," and Stephen Bennett called undocumented immigrants "invaders."
That hostile reaction surprised Teun A. vanDijk of the "Universitat Pompeu Fabra" of Barcelona, Spain (teun@discourses.org), a long-time scholar in the area of diversity, racism and the press.
Teun is doing research on diversity in journalism education in both the United States and in Europe.
Unfortunately, diversity is often not a big issue in journalism education at both the high school and university levels in America.
For example, a popular 695-page text book used in high-school journalism classes ("IDEAS, Practical Ideas for Teaching Journalism," published by the Southern California Journalism Education Assocation) doesn't even discuss the issue of divesity at all.
Often, diversity discussions are limited to ethnic minorities (Latinos, African-Americans, etc.), but in the S-P-J's Diversity Committee, the scope is larger and includes Gays & Lesbians and the disabled (including the mentally disabled, not just those in wheelchairs).
Diversity issues are important in too few classrooms and newsrooms. Even at the SPJ chapter level, it is unfortunately limited to one panel discussion, and ignored the rest of the year.
For example, even the major broadcast networks carelessly and regularly use the phrase "illegal immigrants" when referring to undocumented workers in the United States; in total disrespect to the legal and civil rights of the people involved.
And reporters who are assigned to do a story on a transgender person sometimes do not know the difference between a transgender, transsexual and transvestite (see our SPJ diversity blog on the issue).
Many of our journalism classes teach students how to do an interview and write a story, but fail to teach students as to the challenges they will face when covering a story involving disversity issues.
Some journalists, for example, use the word "hispanic," when the word "Latinos" is preferred by many Spanish-speaking persons. The word hispanic, they believe, is a "white word" created originally by the Census Bureau so they could lump everyone with brown skin into one convenient category.
Inasmuch as diversity seems to be lacking in many journalism classes, that increases the imporance of the work of the SPJ's Diversity Committe, and the tools it provides on the SPJ's website under "diversity."
Diversity in staffing and in news coverage always makes a news operation stronger.
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For comment, contact Leo E. Laurence, J.D. at (619) 757-4909 or e-mail at leopowerhere@msn.com